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Otmar Szafnauer has shed light on the drama surrounding Oscar Piastri’s contract debacle at Alpine in 2022, claiming that his image was used in a team press release to “deflect the incompetency” of others.
Szafnauer, the team principal at Alpine’s Enstone base at the time, found himself in the middle of the controversy when news broke that Piastri would join McLaren for 2023. This followed an earlier announcement that Piastri would be stepping up to replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine. Szafnauer believes using his face in the press release was a deliberate attempt to shift blame onto him and that there were “untrustworthy” individuals within the team.
Piastri, the 2021 Formula 2 champion, was signed as Alpine’s reserve driver after failing to secure a full-time Formula 1 seat. He was also involved in an extended testing program to prepare for a future in F1.
However, when Alonso announced his move to Aston Martin, Alpine quickly declared that Piastri would take his seat—only to reveal that the young driver had already signed a contract with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo for the 2023 season.
Two teams claimed Piastri, so the dispute went before the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board, which ultimately ruled in favor of McLaren.
Szafnauer, though, felt unfairly dragged into the situation, pointing out that he had only started working at Alpine months after Piastri’s Formula 2 victory.
He explained on the High Performance Podcast:
“There was a contract after he finished his F2 career where Alpine had an option on Oscar Piastri as a Formula 1 driver for Alpine, and that contract was never executed.”
“In November, there was a two-week time window where it could have been done, and it wasn’t.”
“Now my point is, come the CRB [Contract Recognition Board], where Alpine lost because the filings were incorrectly done, we put out a press release, and the press release has my image on it.”
“So number one, nothing to do with me. I wasn’t even there. But number two, the communications department that didn’t report to me thought it was a good idea to deflect the incompetency of those that were Alpine at the time by putting my picture on the release.”
He confronted a team member who had been involved in drafting the press release—a person who had worked for him during his Force India days. The response? “I’m sorry, I was told to do this,” she admitted.
“But it just showed at the time that there were some people within the Alpine organisation that were untrustworthy and that were out to get me, so they weren’t working with me.”
Szafnauer left Alpine in mid-2023 as the team sought to turn things around. Bruno Famin stepped in temporarily, and now Oliver Oakes has taken over leadership.
The former Force India team principal shared his view that if the contract dispute had been taken to the UK courts instead of the FIA, Alpine might have had a stronger argument under the concept of “unjust enrichment,” where Piastri would have unfairly benefited from Alpine’s support without proper legal grounds.
Despite the final ruling, Szafnauer maintained that Alpine fulfilled their obligations, though the CRB’s decision revealed that the team hadn’t signed the necessary contract with Piastri.
“Although they didn’t sign the contract in time, what was in that contract we delivered to Oscar, and that was not insignificant, it was 5000 kilometres in a two-year-old car that cost you a lot of money – and we did that,”
“We absolutely did everything that was meant to be done by that contract that was never signed.”
“In English law, had we taken it to an English court, maybe we would have won. You know, that’s unjust enrichment. ‘You know, you didn’t sign the contract, but you took all this and you’re not delivering what you’re supposed to deliver.’”
Featured Image Credit: McLaren Racing Media