Oscar Piastri, the driver who was the focus of a tug of war between McLaren and Alpine over his services for 2023, says he chose to leave Alpine after a breakdown in trust with the team, adding that the way in which he was dealt with by team boss Otmar Szafnauer was “bizarre and upsetting”.
Piastri will race for McLaren next year after the FIA’s contract recognition board (CRB) ruled McLaren was the only team with a valid contract with the Australian for next year.
The reigning Formula 2 champion signed a contract with McLaren on July 4 and said he did so after Alpine, which had funded a large proportion of his junior career, was unable to give him a concrete offer for a drive in F1 the following year.
Alpine had originally planned to place Piastri at Williams in 2023 in the belief that Fernando Alonso would remain a part of its team. But when Alonso signed a deal on August 1 to move to Aston Martin next year, Alpine announced Piastri as its driver for 2023 despite the McLaren contract already being in place.
“The CRB ruling has confirmed I didn’t have a contract for the 2023 season [with Alpine],” Piastri told Formula1.com. “I was free to choose my destiny — and I felt McLaren was a great opportunity. They were very straightforward and very keen and enthusiastic to have me. To be completely honest, there was a lack of clarity around my future at the team at Alpine.
“They publicly stated they wished to continue with Fernando for at least one or two more years. I respect that. But after spending the year out, my hopes were firmly set on an Alpine seat and the lack of clarity and, similarly to Fernando, a bit of a strange feeling in negotiations, it didn’t feel like it was the right decision for me [to stay around].
“The lack of clarity around my future, and ultimately a breakdown in trust, I felt the very attractive offer of McLaren and the positive dealings with them thus far were all reasons why I felt McLaren was where I was best off for the future.”
Alpine announced Piastri as a driver for 2023 on Aug. 2 when the Australian was working at its factory on the driver-in-loop simulator. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer said last week that when he informed Piastri of the news, the F2 champion simply smiled and said “thank you”.
In his interview with Formula1.com, Piastri said his reaction was not intended to be misleading but was a result of being put in an awkward situation.
“That was a bizarre and frankly upsetting episode,” he said. “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.
“Once we were in private, I told Otmar what our position was and what he had been told multiple times before that. It was very surprising to me to make that announcement.”
Szafnauer offered a slightly different version of events when asked about Piastri’s comments in a news conference on Saturday.
“Oscar was in the sim, I went and told him of the release and congratulated him, he smiled and said ‘thank you’,” Szafnauer said. “It was myself, the simulator technician, who happened to be in the same room — it’s a pretty big room — and there were three of us in that room. It wasn’t a group of people, it wasn’t bizarre, and he smiled and said ‘thank you’.”
Szafnauer also claimed that he was not informed about Piastri’s negotiations with McLaren until after the deal had been signed.
“It was much later than July 4,” he said. “Up until that point it’s just conjecture really and we knew exactly what Oscar had signed with us, and we were pursuing that.
“That’s the reason for pursuing it up until the point where we got written notification saying he can’t drive for you and then we started investigating it through the CRB.”
Shortly after Alpine announced him as a driver on Aug. 2, Piastri issued a statement via Twitter saying the Alpine announcement was “wrong” and he would “not be driving for Alpine next year”. Piastri said he had been left with no option but to issue a clear statement on his position.
“It was the biggest moment of my career and probably my life up to now,” he said. “To have that falsely announced was something my management and I felt we had to correct and there was also potential legal implications if we didn’t deny the announcement.
“It was not intended to be pointed or in any way anything more than factual. The last line was quite a strong one, but with the CRB ruling, it shows it was purely a fact.”
Source: www.espn.com