Otmar Szafnauer blames Alpine for the conflict with Piastri in F1
The former director of the Alpine team, Otmar Szafnauer, addressed the dispute between Alpine and Oscar Piastri that occurred in 2022. He blamed the French team for not signing the Australian driver, highlighting internal communication issues.
Otmar Szafnauer, former director of the Alpine F1 team, recently discussed the circumstances surrounding the controversial transfer of Oscar Piastri to McLaren, a choice he attributes to unreliable individuals within the organization.
Appointed as head of the team in 2022, Szafnauer left his position in July 2023, after performances below expectations, during his second season.
Read also: The revelations of Szafnauer, dismissed from Alpine via a Zoom call
A turnaround
The story took an unexpected turn in mid-2022, when Fernando Alonso announced that he was joining Aston Martin. This left an open spot for Oscar Piastri, Alpine’s reserve driver. However, to everyone’s surprise, the Australian has chosen McLaren, leaving Alpine without its young talent and with a two-time world champion departing.
Despite Alpine’s efforts to manage this situation, Szafnauer said he played no role in the conflict that led to this choice: « A contract existed after the end of his F2 career, where Alpine had an option on Oscar Piastri as a Formula 1 driver for Alpine, and this contract was never executed. In November, there was a two-week window where it could have been done, but it wasn’t.
He continued by emphasizing the impact of the situation: « Now, my point is that when we arrived at the Contract Recognition Committee (CRC) where Alpine lost because the deposits had been misplaced, we issued a press release, and the press release had my picture on it. So, first of all, this has nothing to do with me. I wasn’t even there. »
An internal communication problem
Szafnauer reported a breach in internal communication, noting that members of the communication department chose to designate him as responsible: « the communication department, which did not depend on me, thought it was a good idea to divert attention from the incompetence of those who were at Alpine at the time by putting my photo on the press release.
« The lady who actually posted the photo, Lucy Genon, worked for me at Force India. So, I went to see Lucy and I told her, “Lucy, you know very well that’s not it.” She replied, “I’m sorry I was told to do it,” he added.
He commented: « But at the time, it just showed that there were some people within the Alpine organization who were unreliable and trying to get at me, so they weren’t collaborating with me. Although they didn’t sign the contract on time, what was in that contract, we delivered to Oscar, and it wasn’t insignificant: it was 5,000 kilometers in an expensive two-year-old car – and we did that. »
Szafnauer concluded by stating that Alpine had fulfilled its commitments, even without the contract being signed: « In English law, if we had taken the matter to court, maybe we would have won. »
While Alpine and the Renault group are at the center of the news following the announcement of the end of their engine in F1, these new revelations are not good news for the French team.
