Otmar Szafnauer reveals mistake Alpine made that meant they lost Oscar Piastri to McLaren

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Oscar Piastri has enjoyed success at McLaren after two years at the team, but it was very nearly not the case for the Australian after he was tangled in a contract dispute with Alpine.

During the 2022 season, Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement from Formula 1 which allowed Fernando Alonso to announce a move to Aston Martin in the summer.

When he did so, it kicked off a whirlwind of events whereby Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as their replacement having run him in F2 and put him on an extensive F1 test programme in the previous 12 months leading up to the announcement.

Unbeknownst to them, the Australian had signed a contract with McLaren after several months of delays and just hours after Alpine announced him he denied that he would be driving for them in a post that has become part of F1 folklore on social media.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Alpine took McLaren to the Contract Recognition Board to settle the dispute, however, the CRB ruled that he had a valid contract with the Woking-based squad.

Discussing the dispute on the High-Performance podcast, former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the key mistake the team made during negotiations.

Otmar Szafnauer reveals Alpine did not sign a contract with Oscar Piastri properly

Alpine had spent months delaying talks with Piastri’s manager, former F1 driver Mark Webber, due to constraints with their legal departments.

“I had absolutely nothing to do with not signing Oscar Piastri correctly. That was, that mistake was made in November,” said Szafnauer.

“I started in March. So in November, the Piastri contract was meant to be signed. It was never signed. I had no idea. They didn’t submit the CRB documents correctly and never signed a contract with them.”

Initially, they offered Piastri a contract as a reserve driver but this did not extend beyond 2022 as a proper driver with the team.

Alpine intended to draft a contract but subsequently did not deliver it to Piastri’s camp, which led to him seeking a drive elsewhere. The team ended up having to pay legal costs totalling £530,467 to McLaren and Piastri according to RacingNews365.com.

Alpine missed out while McLaren gains driver tipped to be future world champion

It was a particularly messy saga in the long-running soap opera episodes for Alpine in the last three years, having not only lost its world champion driver but also a future prospect to a direct rival.

McLaren gained a brilliant second driver to Lando Norris, as Piastri has shown this season with two wins at the Hungarian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix.

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has backed Piastri to deliver an F1 championship to McLaren within the ‘next two years’ after being impressed by his abilities.

His consistency has led to McLaren overtaking Red Bull in the battle for the Constructors’ Championship, which is set to heat up in the final six races of the season.