An infamous F1 villain has been called out over possible collusion in the ongoing Oscar Piastri contract saga at Alpine.
Piastri’s future is up in the air after Fernando Alonso declared he would be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin next season. Alpine quickly announced that their long-time junior prospect Piastri would replace Alonso for 2023 – only for Piastri to reject their statement about him in a public bombshell.
Alpine believe their contract with Piastri will force him to race for them next year, though the young Aussie has also signed a deal to replace Daniel Ricciardo McLaren next season.
F1’s Contract Recognition Board this week reportedly found both Piastri’s Alpine and McLaren contracts are valid, according to Auto Hebdo of France.
Alpine is now threatening to take Piastri and McLaren to court to seek compensation for their huge investment in Piastri’s years of training – and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer’s bold claims didn’t stop there.
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“Going to the High Court is over 90 per cent certain that’s what we’ll do,” Szafnauer told Reuters.
“If the CRB (Contract Recognition Board) says ‘Your license is only valid at Alpine’, and then he (Piastri) says ‘That’s great, but I’m never driving for them, I’ll just sit out a year’, then you’ve got to go to the High Court for compensation.”
The Alpine boss also hinted at potential collusion between Piastri’s manager Mark Webber, Alonso and his manager Flavio Briatore.
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Briatore is one of the most controversial figures in F1, due to his renegade management of the Enstone squad now known as Alpine, having spent years overseeing the team in its former guises as Benetton and Renault. He also managed Mark Webber at one point and remains close to his former charge from him, while he continues to manage Alonso.
“Look, I have no record of it, but this is Formula 1 and maybe in a couple of years someone says that they have evidence of shared information, I would not be surprised,” Szafnauer said.
“I always tell everyone that in Formula 1 you have to act as if everyone knows everything. That there are no secrets in these things. When you ask someone not to say anything, they act like everyone knows.
“That’s how I’ve run my business in Formula 1 for 25 years. And if this (information sharing) has happened, you should not be surprised.”
Christian Danner, a German F1 driver from the late-1980s who is now a pundit in his native country, also declared Piastri’s actions bear Briatore’s trademark.
“It’s classic Flavio. There was certainly a (Alpine) contract for Piastri that Flavio has skimmed over … there was definitely a clause,” Danner told Motorsport Magazine.
“When he believes in someone, he has the foresight to plan in a positive sense – and not just ruthlessly, which is logically the case in this business.
“I could imagine Piastri (using Briatore) to free himself from Alpine’s grip, so that he can hopefully drive for McLaren for the next two years and then be free for a big deal.
“That definitely has Briatore’s signature.
“It can all go wrong, of course, but if it works out, then he (Briatore) has done everything right.”
72-year-old Briatore’s Renault team was charged with race fixing in 2008 at the Singapore Grand Prix, after their driver Nelson Piquet Jr. claimed he had been ordered to deliberately crash his car. Teammate Fernando Alonso had just pitted, and the resulting safety car helped him go on to win the race.
Briatore and Renault engineering chief Pat Symonds were both indefinitely banned from all elite motorsport categories before a French court later overruled the ruling.
It wasn’t the only Briatore scandal, with his Benetton team in 1991 remarkably sacking driver Roberto Moreno in order to sign Michael Schumacher after his debut race.
Moreno successfully appealed to a court – which found his contract was valid – but was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to leave the team and allow Schumacher to join.
The young Schumacher would subsequently win his maiden title at the Benetton franchise.
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