Alpine has denied what Oscar Piastri described as the “bizarre” moment he was informed of his Formula 1 race seat for 2023.
In the wake of Fernando Alonso announcing his move to Aston Martin, Alpine chief Otmar Szafnauer went to Piastri in the factory to tell him of his promotion from reserve driver for next season.
According to Szafnauer, the Australian “smiled and was thankful” afterwards, but Oscar revealed why that reaction was awkward.
“That was a bizarre and frankly upsetting episode,” he said via Formula1.com.
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“It was done publicly in front of some members of the team who were oblivious to the situation and I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of them.
“Once we were in private, I told Otmar what our position was and what he had been told multiple times before that [I was leaving for McLaren]. It was very surprising to me to make that announcement.”
Asked about Piastri’s comments in Zandvoort, Szafnauer responded: “I’ve never lied to you, and I never will. But what I can tell you is to reiterate what I said before.
“Oscar was in the simulator, when he finished his simulator session, I went and told him of the releases and to congratulate him and he smiled and said ‘thank you’.
“Was there a group of people there? I can tell you no. It was myself, the simulator technician – who happened to be in the same room – but if you’ve seen a simulator it’s a pretty big room, as big as it is here, and there were three of us in that room.
“It wasn’t a group of people, it wasn’t bizarre, and he smiled and said ‘thank you’.“
After that moment, Alpine would take to social media to announce Piastri, only for him to deny signing a contract less than two hours later on Twitter.
“It was the biggest moment of my career and probably my life up to now,” he said.
“To have that falsely announced was something my management and I felt we had to correct and there was also potential legal implications if we didn’t deny the announcement.
“It was not intended to be pointed or in any way anything more than factual. The last line was quite a strong one, but with the CRB ruling, it shows it was purely a fact.”
Indeed, last Friday, the Contract Recognition Board unanimously decided a contract Piastri signed with McLaren on July 4 was valid, paving the way for the current F2 champion to be confirmed alongside Lando Norris for next season.
And Szafnauer conceded Alpine will need to be more careful to ensure a similar situation doesn’t happen again.
“There are lessons to be learned for sure,” he said.
“So we’ll have a good backward look and, like anything, we’ll analyse and if there are a few things we can do better, I’m sure we’ll incorporate those in our future dealings.”