Alpine didn’t have a great end to their relations with Oscar Piastri, despite investing $11,500,000 in him and then ending up paying $420,000 to Oscar Piastri and McLaren combined in the lost case. Thus, around $12,000,000 were spent to keep Oscar Piastri in the system. Though, they failed as McLaren took one of the biggest F1 prospects of the new generation. However, Alpine still have some promising prospects in their system, which they don’t want to lose, and Otmar Szafnauer reveals on Beyond the Grid the new hiring they made that would prevent a repeat.
Indeed Piastri is hailed as a talent who can, in the future, vie for the championship. Seeing his junior record, one could only be impressed by it. And that is why for Alpine, the F2 champion remaining was important, considering they invested truckloads of capital in him.
Before Alonso left Alpine, the French team hardly made a suitable entry for him in F1. But as soon as the two-time world champion decided to leave for Aston Martin, Piastri had orchestrated his move to McLaren, leaving Alpine all deceived. But now, they are taking steps to avoid repeating it.
Otmar Szafnauer hired someone to avoid such a big loss
In the latest episode of the most famous F1 podcast, Tom Clarkson asked the Alpine boss how they would keep themselves leaking good prospects in their pipeline. Szafnauer reveals all the steps they took after the entire Piastra saga.
“So I hired a super lawyer, very experienced. Caroline McGrorgy. She was the Mercedes for quite some time. She pays attention to the details, is incredibly intelligent, and has some great experience behind her. So I am confident that loopholes in the contract will never arise again,” reveals Szafnauer.
The Alpine boss reveals that he hired her in April this year. Meanwhile, while all the checks are made, Piastri is about to have an impressive campaign with McLaren.
Oscar Piastri is showcasing why he was hyped
The Australian race driver had an underwhelming start to his rookie season as McLaren failed even to break in the points. But from Austria and Britain for Piastri, the season overturned for the Papaya team after some considerable upgrades by them.
McLaren has secured two podiums in the last two races, though not by Piastri. However, he has kept himself just a sniff away from his much experienced teammate Lando Norris.
Therefore, it has been viewed as impressive. Norris even believed that Piastri deserved to be on the podium in Silverstone and that his time at the top would come soon.
