McLaren Boss Zak Brown’s savage response to Oscar Piastri’s fiasco shows how underprepared Alpine were.
Oscar Piastri was recently confirmed as a McLaren driver for the 2023 season. This comes after the Contract Recognition board finally settled the debate about his future.
Following Fernando Alonso’s exit at the end of the 2022 season, Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as a driver for the next year. However, the Australian declined that he had signed any contact with the team.
Piastri also said in a statement that he will not be racing for Alpine. This grew a great fiasco about his future. In the meantime, Piastri had an agreement with McLaren which was not known to anyone.
Alpine team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was the biggest critic of Piastri. He questioned the integrity and loyalty of the young Aussie and questioned his loyalty toward the team.
Szafnauer had assured that Piastri will remain an Alpine driver and the verdict by the CRB will state the same. He even stated that the French team will sue the Aussie and his other team for the Millions invested in developing him as a driver.
However, Alpine lost the case and even had to pay McLaren and Piastri’s legal fees. McLaren CEO, Zak Brown had some advice for Otmar and his team following the defeat.
It’s official! 😁#F1 #OP81 @mclaren pic.twitter.com/CFY3Z1ddrQ
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) September 2, 2022
Brown remarked, “If you look at all of the comments by Otmar he was giving a little play-by-play of the CRB. And how confident they were, and now I think he looks a little silly.”
he continues, “That’s why it’s best to keep your mouth shut. And we can talk about it after the fact when there’s something concrete to say.”
Also Read: Alpine to pay $420,000 to McLaren and Oscar Piastri after losing CRB trial
Why McLaren remained silent in Oscar Piastri’s case
Oscar Piastri is an Alpine Academy driver since 2020. He won the 2020 F3 championship and 2021 F2 Championship. He also became only the fifth driver after Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, Charles Leclerc and George Russell to the titles in successive years.
Piastri wanted to drive for Alpine but the seats were occupied by Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. Instead, the team had an agreement with Williams to loan Piastri for the 2023 season.
But there was no clause stating a seat. Nor did Piastri sign a contract with Alpine beyond 2022. While McLaren, who loaned Piastri as a reserve driver at the start of the season assured him a seat if they part ways with Daniel Ricciardo.
CRB verdict:
“The Tribunal has issued a Unanimous Decision that the only Contract to be recognised by the Board is the Contract between McLaren Racing Limited and Piastri dated 4 July 2022. Piastri is entitled to drive for McLaren Racing Limited for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.”
— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) September 2, 2022
Alpine was ‘confident’ about retaining Piastri ahead of the verdict by the CRB. But McLaren knew that Alpine did not have an active contract with the driver beyond the current season and hence lost the case.
Zak Brown said, “Before the CRB ruling, they didn’t know what they didn’t know. And we kept our mouths shut deliberately. Now that ruling has come out and some of the detail, I think it’s clear what happened there.”
He added, “So we recognised there was a lot of noise, but we knew the truth would come out eventually and we could ride it out, as opposed to giving a running commentary.”
Alpine made a fool by making bold calls. While McLaren successfully signed a talent like Oscar Piasti and won some additional cash! He will be replacing fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo for the 2023 season.
Also Read: 21-year old Oscar Piastri slams Alpine for their behaviour leading up to his McLaren switch
