Otmar Szafnauer assures that the contract linking Oscar Piastri to Alpine F1 for next year is valid. The director of the French team wants to assert his rights, while the contract recognition office (CRB) must rule on Monday on the validity – or not – of the contract binding them.
“We are sure that Oscar signed with us in November,” said Szafnauer, sure he would win out one way or another. « There are certain things that need to be in the contract and I’m sure they are there. »
Szafnauer assures that the July 31 deadline, which came into sharp focus when Fernando Alonso signed with Aston Martin F1, is not a reality. According to him, Piastri had a contract for 2023 and 2024 which Alpine could activate at any time.
« There was no saying ‘by July 31 you have to do certain things’, that July 31 deadline that I read about all the time is fictional. The term of the contract is until 2024 with an option in 2023. »
« There’s a lot more, but I don’t really like to talk about the specifics. We’ve done everything in the contract and we’re still doing it. We’ve definitely lived up to our end of the bargain. »
This does not prevent « a great relationship »
Words that suggest that Szafnauer and Alpine want above all to recover compensation in case Piastri does not drive next year for the team. The Romanian indeed assures that the team of Enstone and Viry is doing everything he had committed to do to work with Piastri and support him.
« He drives in our simulator, helps us tune the car and we continue to prepare for Oscar in the same way as in the past. The relationship has not weakened and we continue. »
However, Szafnauer believes that the current dispute is not incompatible with seeing Piastri stay in the team, once everything is clarified. According to him, it is normal that the pilot and the team want a legal clarification.
“It’s the next logical step when you think you have a valid contract with the driver and he wants to go somewhere else” he continues, taking as an example the good agreement between Jenson Button and Honda after his contract with Williams had been terminated.
« I was there with Jenson Button when he wanted to go to Williams, but BAR won ahead of CRB and we had a great relationship with Jenson afterwards which culminated in a world championship, although after Honda had left the sport. »
Piastri was ‘grateful’ to start
When the announcement of the replacement of Alonso by Piastri was made, the latter immediately issued a press release saying that he was engaged elsewhere and that he would not ride in the French team. This surprised Szafnauer, since he assures that he had announced it to him orally, with a positive reception.
« I saw Oscar before we released the release. He was in the simulator, so I went up to him and told him. He smiled and was grateful, so we released the release ASAP. »
All the same, Otmar Szafnauer (who had already denounced the « lack of integrity » de Piastri, see our article) now castigates the hypocritical attitude of its young pilot…
At the moment, Szafnauer isn’t thinking about replacing Piastri as he wants to know the CRB’s verdict first. From there, he will decide which driver to hire in place of the Australian, if the latter finally joins McLaren.
« We will ask the CRB to decide which contract Oscar signed has priority and after that we will see where we go. Once we have all the information in front of us, we will start looking for who will fill the vacant seat. »
The objective is to be able to evaluate the candidates in the coming weeks: « The good news is that we have three races in a row now. We will wait until Monday or Tuesday, and then look at our situation with good information to make those decisions. »
Szafnauer concluded by saying that he and general manager Laurent Rossi had no “no regrets” about the situation but admitted that there were “lessons to be learned”.
