This Saturday, on the sidelines of the Belgian Grand Prix, Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine team manager, spoke about the departure of Fernando Alonso and the imbroglio around Oscar Piastri.
Who will team up with Esteban Ocon at Alpine in 2023? For the moment, we will have to wait to find out who will succeed Fernando Alonso. If Oscar Piastri seemed the obvious choice for the French team, the Australian would have signed up with McLaren. However, this Saturday, Otmar Szafnauer was present at a press conference, alongside Mike Krack (Aston Martin) and Andreas Siedl (McLaren), and tried to clarify the situation a little. ” I’m sure that in every situation, we learn lessons. With Fernando, he was free at the end of the year so we knew he was talking to other teams. We had presented him with a contract which we were satisfied with on our side. So we have no regrets on this aspect and he got what he wanted the most elsewhere. On Oscar, the only disappointment is that he signed with us in November and we kept all our promises, we even did a little more. The counterpart, it was that it settles in our car , explained the team principal of Alpine.
Szafnauer “very confident” in the Piastri file
« Already, we will see what will happen before the contract commission on Monday and see which agreement has priority. (between Alpine and McLaren). Once that decision is made, we’ll see what happens. I have seen the arguments of both parties and I am very confident. I don’t like talking about contract details but what I can say is that there was not in the agreement with Oscar a deadline to do something at July 31st. The terms of the contract run until 2024 with an option at the end of 2023. When we have all the information at our disposal, we will see who will occupy the seat left free., continued Szafnauer, in remarks taken up by L’Equipe. You know, I was there when it happened with Jenson Button who had signed with Williams (in 2004) but BAR already had a contract with him and it had been validated by the commission. So be patient, the outcome seems close, however.