Why Alpine still feels burned by Piastri despite its own mistakes

The remarkable series of events that resulted in Alonso jumping ship to Aston Martin and it eventually losing Piastri to McLaren after a Contract Recognition Board ruling, means it is now remains on the hunt for a second driver for next season.

But beyond the practicalities of it being back to square one in its quest for a teammate for Esteban Ocon for 2023, there is lingering disappointment about how events turned out – and especially how one camp behaved.

Speaking for the first time since the driver bombshells of the summer, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi is forthright in his opinion about the motivations of the key players in what happened.

From the Alonso perspective, Rossi accepts that his decision to go for a big money deal at Aston Martin – which guaranteed him the long-term timeframe he craved – was fully understandable.

“He wanted more than two years,” explained Rossi, expanding on the events from the Alpine motorhome at the Monza paddock.

“I don’t think it was a total showstopper, but it was something he wanted. We couldn’t offer it.

“I think we were still in agreement, and then I want to believe that he got an offer that he cannot refuse and that we cannot match. And so F1 has that silly season.

“I’m hoping he made a silly move sports wise, because that means we’re still ahead of Aston Martin, but I can’t blame him for taking a better offer if it’s the case.

“Fernando is a great champion, he’s a legend of our sport and a legend of our brand. He’s still delivering, a great professional, so no bad feelings. That’s life. So we move on. So that’s Fernando that closes his case.”

Piastri disappointment

While understanding Alonso’s choice as clear business, Rossi’s tone changes when it comes to talking about what happened with Piastri.

For while he admits that mistakes were made in not locking down Piastri to a water-tight contract that could have prevented him swooping for a McLaren offer, he cannot hide his annoyance at what he feels was a lack of simply loyalty for all the team had done for the Australian.

Having origially set out the much talked about Heads of Terms with Piastri for the reserve driver role last November 15, Rossi says Alpine did everything that was promised.

It sorted out plans for an extensive 5000km test programme for him (he had completed 3700km before the summer), it gave him a role in the sim and at race weekends, and it would…