After the slaps in shambles, place to the counter-attack. Abused and sometimes mocked after the announcement of the surprise departure of Fernando Alonso and the refusal of Oscar Piastri to take over next season, Otmar Szafnauer confided at length to El Confidential to take stock of the chaotic situation within the French team. Regarding the Spanish driver, who fled to Aston Martin when Szafnauer thought he could count on him next season, the new team manager of Alpine is not tender.
“I’m not naïve, I know the rules of Formula 1. But personally I believe that I am a man of integrity and if I commit to something I will do my best to make it happen. I keep my word, it’s how I grew up, what my father passed on to me. But hey, I understood that not everyone does things the same way,” he said.
But that’s nothing compared to what he reserved for Piastri who, it must be said, humiliated the French team in the eyes of the world after the publication of his tweet, Tweet taken over and adapted since by an Alex Albon a bit teasing when announcing his extension at Williams Racing.
“I expected more loyalty from Piastri (…) We invested a lot in him, literally. Millions and millions of euros to prepare him for the future. So yeah, I was hoping for more loyalty from him. I started Formula 1 in 1989 and I had never seen this before. And I’m not even talking about F1, I’m talking about integrity as a human being. »
Alpine could claim damages
Sure of their facts and reinforced in this sense by their lawyers, the leaders of the tricolor team thought that the Australian pilot would be their pilot in the event of the departure of Fernando Alonso. “We spoke to our lawyers and they told us this was a binding contract, so part of this contract allows us to put Oscar in one of our cars in 2023, which is why we released this statement,” he justified himself.
Now, if it seems unlikely that Piastri will be Esteban Ocon’s future teammate next season, Szafnauer is not done with him. “We had a contract with Piastri and we have to see where this case will take us, he warned. We’re going to take a moment to study this. If his future is made without us, then it is normal that we ask for compensation. “Asked about the identity of the second pilot in 2023, the Romanian leader did not give any leads, simply explaining that he had” the numbers of fourteen pilots who would be interested “by the Alpine project.