The real story behind Oscar Piastri’s F1 move to McLaren

Although ultimately it was a matter for F1’s Contract Recognition Board, and cost Alpine nearly £540,000 in legal fees, it also included the situation descending at times into personal insults.

Piastri has faced accusations of lacking ‘integrity’ by Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer for turning his back on the squad that helped guide his career as part of its young driver Academy since 2020.

Piastri was also on the receiving end of criticism from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff who made pointed remarks about ‘integrity’ and ‘karma’.

On the other side of the table, McLaren has faced a backlash on social media for the way that it put together a deal with Piastri for 2023 while it still had Daniel Ricciardo under a firm contract.

But with the dust now settled on the case, and both sides having had to present to the CRB its truth about what happened, a clearer picture of what really went on has emerged and the situation is very different from how some presumed.

Motorsport.com has spoken to several insiders who have good knowledge of the proceedings and developments, and the reality is that rather than the Piastri affair being a case of a ruthless young driver and his management team betraying a team, it was more a matter of them feeling let down and instead concluding that they had no option but to look elsewhere or risk getting nothing.

And from McLaren’s perspective, it was guilty only of chasing the most competitive driver line-up it could when a once-in-a-generation opportunity fell into its hands.

The CRB arguments

The case between Alpine and the CRB is understood to have revolved around whether a ‘Terms Sheet’ agreement – loosely mapping out Alpine’s plans for Piastri between 2020 and 2023 – that was lodged with the Contracts Recognition Board should have been treated as a definitive contract.

This document had originally been sent to Piastri and manager Mark Webber on November 15, 2021 as part of correspondence detailing the team’s response to it taking up an option it had.

At the time (and agreed in subsequent emails), Alpine and Piastri/Webber were clear that the best way to progress from this Terms Sheet was to sort out two separate contracts: one for being reserve in 2022 and another as an F1 race driver for 2023/2024.

In a letter that Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi sent on that date, he promised that a proper F1 agreement…