Otmar Szafnauer hits out at Alpine ‘incompetency’ in Oscar Piastri contract saga

Otmar Szafnauer has distanced himself from the contract saga surrounding Oscar Piastri at Alpine in 2022, saying his face was used on a team press release to “deflect the incompetency” of others at the time.

Szafnauer was team principal at Team Enstone when news broke that Piastri would be heading to McLaren for 2023, after it was announced he would step up to replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine, and a press release with Szafnauer’s face left the now-former team boss believing there were “untrustworthy” people among the team at the time.

Otmar Szafnauer: Oscar Piastri contract for Alpine ‘could have been done, and it wasn’t’

Piastri won the 2021 Formula 2 title, but without a Formula 1 seat available with Alpine at the time, he was signed to a reserve role that included an extended provision for testing of previous cars [TPC] to gear him up for Formula 1.

When the announcement came that Fernando Alonso would be departing for Aston Martin, the team then confirmed that Piastri would step up in Alonso’s place, but it later transpired Piastri had already signed a deal with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo for 2023.

With two teams laying claim to his services, a case was brought before the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board and eventually found in McLaren’s favour.

In using Szafnauer’s image on the team’s press release, however, the former team principal explained his belief that Alpine sought to place blame at his door, when he started work with the team several months after Piastri won his Formula 2 title.

“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,” Szafnauer explained on the High Performance Podcast .

“In November, there was a two-week time window where it could have been done, and it wasn’t.

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“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.”

Szafnauer added that he challenged the relevant member of the team involved in the press release being put together, with that person having worked for him in his Force India days, but he added: “She said, ‘I’m sorry, I was told to do this.’

“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 departed Alpine in mid-2023 as the team looked to revive its fortunes, with Bruno Famin stepping in for a year, and Oliver Oakes now having taken the reins.

The former Force India team principal explained his belief that, if the contract ruling had been challenged in the UK courts rather than through the FIA, Alpine may have had a stronger case through ‘unjust enrichment’, whereby Piastri in this case would have unfairly benefitted from Alpine’s services without legal justification.

But despite the eventual outcome, he said Alpine held up their end of the bargain, though it transpired through the CRB’s ruling the team had not signed the relevant 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,” he said.

“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.’”

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