Piastri has faced accusations of a lack of “integrity” from Alps team principal Ottmar Schaffnauer for turning his back on the team that helped guide his career as a member of the Young Drivers’ Academy from 2020. Piastri was also criticized by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who made pointed remarks about “integrity” and “karma”. On the other side of the table, McLaren faced a backlash on social media for the way it agreed a deal with Piastri for 2023 while still having Daniel Ricciardo under a permanent contract. But as the dust has now settled on the case, with both sides having to present to the CRB their truth about what happened, a clearer picture has emerged of what really happened and the situation is very different from what some assumed. Motorsport.com spoke to a number of insiders who are well aware of the proceedings and developments, and the reality is that rather than the Piastri case being a case of a rogue young driver and his management team betraying a team, it was more a matter of them feeling frustrated and instead ‘ of this they conclude that they had no choice but to look elsewhere or risk getting nothing. And from McLaren’s perspective, it was only guilty of chasing the most competitive line-up of drivers it could when a once-in-a-generation opportunity fell into its hands.

CRB’s arguments

Oscar Piastri, Alpine A521 Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images The case between Alpine and the CRB is understood to have revolved around whether a ‘Term Sheet’ agreement – loosely outlining Alpine’s plans for Piastri between 2020 and 2023 – lodged with the Contract Recognition Board should have been treated as final contract. This document was originally sent to Piastri and manager Mark Webber on November 15, 2021 as part of correspondence detailing the team’s response to picking up an option it had. At the time (and agreed in subsequent emails), Alpine and Piastri/Webber were clear that the best way to move on from this Term Sheet was to arrange two separate contracts: one for booking in 2022 and another as an F1 race driver for 2023/2024. In a letter sent by Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi on that date, he promised that a proper F1 agreement would be sent to him soon – “with the intention of executing it no later than 10 working days after receipt”. However, there was no such F1 agreement – ​​either for the reserve contract or a race contract – and there was understandably growing frustration from Webber and the Piastri camp at the delays. In correspondence between Webber and Alpine’s legal team over the following weeks, it became increasingly clear that things were not progressing as quickly as the former F1 driver would have liked. This was initially blamed on “congestion” in the system caused by a lack of resources and then further delays as the team prepared to launch their new car. Amid the rally to unveil the A522 at the end of February, the group promised that the issues would be sorted out. Webber duly asked if the contract could be settled by March 1 to give Piastri’s camp time to assess it before signing ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. On March 2, Webber promised that the contract would be with him later that day. Two days later, however, Webber was sent a “Draft Reserve Driver Agreement”, with a note that details of an F1 Agreement for 2023/2024 would follow as early as next week. This latter deal did not go through, as it was initially explained that there were delays caused by arranging a shared reserve driver role with McLaren that had been agreed with Alpine. With the F1 season approaching, and Alpine required by the Concorde Agreement to apply for a super license to the CRB if Piastri was to be allowed to run at the track, it was proposed to arrange the reserve driver for the super license classification. A separate F1 race driver deal for 2023 and 2024 could then follow at a later date. Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, Alpine Photo by: Alpine As the reserve driver agreement had not been signed by either driver or team at that point, Alpine duly sent the CRB on 14 March a document containing the November 2021 Term Sheet signed by both parties. The group had added a label at the top declaring it to be “Legal Binding Terms Headings”, even though what was supposed to be an attached contract in a separate sealed envelope (to be used only in a CRB dispute) was unsigned and did not display those words . That Term Sheet was also tellingly titled ‘Subject to Contract’ and featured the ‘likely’ plan for Piastri to be a reserve driver for a year before a possible race seat in 2023. The documents submitted specifically referred only to the 2022 backup driver role and made no mention of extensions or options for extension. A day later, Alpine finally sent Webber and Piastri the proposed F1 Agreement, albeit without anything specific in terms of teams for 2023 and beyond. That only happened on May 19, when Piastri was sent an offer to sign a four-year contract from 2023 to 2026. But the crucial thing was not to race exclusively for Alpine, where they had pinned their hopes. The timetable set for him was to race for Williams in 2023. Then, apparently pending Alpine’s original plans for Fernando Alonso, in 2024 Piastri would either remain at Williams for a second season or return to Alpine if the Spaniard left F1. For 2025, it was decided that Piastri would have a firm two-year deal to race at Alpine until the end of 2026. It was this offer – which gave Piastri no hope of a short-term future at Alpine – that is believed to have been the last straw that made him decide not to sign and move on. Instead, Webber and Piastri agreed the best route forward was to look elsewhere — with informal talks already underway with McLaren at that stage. Sources revealed the CRB decision noted that: “Alpine had been toying with an F1 driver’s contract for Mr Piastri for the previous eight months and here they were now proposing a four-year deal starting with a two-year loan deal with Williams.” Talks with McLaren progressed and, with the team informing Daniel Ricciardo as early as May that it was looking at other options for 2023, a preliminary agreement between the Woking-based team and Piastri was signed on 4 June. It is understood he was originally to be in an unspecified role for 2023, in case Ricciardo stayed, but apparently the intention is that Piastri would step up if a split were to happen. With both McLaren and Piastri satisfied that there were no rights to his services elsewhere, based on Alpine only having this ‘subject to contract’ Term Sheet lodged with the CRB, and talks with Ricciardo accelerating towards in the clear direction of a separation. , Piastri’s final racing contract was signed on July 4 – provided there is a vacancy for him. Ricciardo’s subsequent Instagram post on July 13 about fully committing to McLaren for 2023 must therefore be seen more as a negotiating tactic. This would have been aimed at strengthening his hand when it came to exit terms, rather than being a smoking gun because he was unaware of what McLaren was doing behind the scenes: even if he may not have known specifically about the timing of the deals that have been put in place application with Piastri. With McLaren’s 2023 contract up, Piastri kept his head down as the team began to finalize the terms of its split with Ricciardo – which it wanted completed before announcing its future driver plans. However, the matter came to light when Alpine lost Alonso to Aston Martin at the start of the summer break and then announced Piastri for 2023 – prompting the youngster to post the infamous tweet that he would not be racing for it and sparking the possible CRB hearing.

The final decision

Oscar Piastri, Alpine A521 Photo: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images Ultimately the CRB decision was unanimous. A Term Sheet marked ‘Subject to Contract’ meant it was far from valid and, with nothing else filed by Alpine, the obvious conclusion was that McLaren were the only team with a genuine contract for 2023 and after. Interestingly, as a final act of conflict between Alpine and Piastri, the team argued to the CRB that the Australian would have to swallow his own legal fees of more than £120,000 as they felt he was not a party to the proceedings. The CRB rejected this, as it held that he had every right to be represented. A further complaint by Alpine about the costs of McLaren’s legal representatives being “excessive” was also rejected.

Moving on

For Alpine, beyond the loss of Piastri and the full legal costs of all parties to take on, there will be important lessons for how it treats drivers and their contracts in the future. It should be noted that Szafnauer only joined the team at the beginning of March, so the situation was difficult: and it may not have been a priority for him to focus on documents that had already been filed with the CRB. Pressed on what Alpine’s response to the events would be, Szafnauer said at Zandvoort: “All this happened in November last year, so I guess it’s easy to blame people who aren’t here anymore, but that’s not my style . “The right thing is to take a look at what happened, understand where the shortcomings were and fix them for the future.” While there doesn’t seem to be any discussion of the legal aspects of the Piastri matter, it is…