Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer says Oscar Piastri was properly informed of the team’s decision to promote him to Formula 1 in 2023, after the driver related a “bizarre” meeting between the pair of them.
Piastri maintains he told the team more than once he would not drive for them next year before Szafnauer made his move to promote the reserve driver to their race team in 2023.
“That was a bizarre and frankly upsetting episode,” said Piastri. “It was done publicly in front of some members of the team who were oblivious to the situation and I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of them.
Szafnauer said Piastri was informed the team were preparing to announce him as their new driver for 2023. “I informed him that the press release was going out and I congratulated him on being an Alpine driver,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans. “He smiled and said ‘thank you’ and offered nothing else.
Speaking during today’s FIA press conference, Szafnauer gave his account of how the meeting took place: “Oscar was in the simulator, when he finished his simulator session I went and told him of the release and to congratulate him and he smiled and said ‘thank you’.
“Were there a group of people there? I can tell you no, it was myself [and] the simulator technician, who happened to be in the same room. But if you’ve ever seen a simulator, it’s a pretty big room, as big as it is here.
“There were three of us in that room. So it wasn’t a group of people. It wasn’t bizarre. And he smiled and said ‘thank you’.”
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Despite Piastri’s claim he had told Alpine he intended to go elsewhere, Szafnauer said the team remained under the impression their existing deal with Piastri ensured they could promote him to a race seat in 2023. “At that point we were having discussions with Oscar,” he explained. “We were under the impression that the contractual arrangements we had with Oscar were were valid.”
The Contract Recognition Board ruled yesterday McLaren has a valid deal with Piastri for 2023. Before their decision Szafnauer thought Alpine had a “fifty-fifty” chance of success.
“The Germans have a really nice saying that if you’re on the high seas or in front of a judge, you’re in God’s hands. Meaning you can’t really predict the outcome and you can’t predict the outcome on…
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