"I didn't have control" Szafnauer on Piastri's Alpine contract
F1 News
Former Alpine and Aston Martin Team Principal Otmar Szafnaeur has revealed what happened with Oscar Piastri's Alpine contact which led to the team missing out on the Australian. Szanfanuer left the team in 2023 after joining the team in 2022.
Szafnauer had 'nothing to do' with Piastri's contract
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has claimed he had no control over the team missing out on the Australian's signature. "I had absolutely nothing to do with not signing Oscar Piastri correctly. That mistake was made in November [2021]. I started in March [2022]. In November, the Piastri contract was meant to be signed. It was never signed. I started [in] March, I had no idea. They didn't submit the CRB [Contract Recognition Board] documents correctly and never signed a contract with them.” Szafnauer claimed.
Piastri was an Alpine academy driver before joining McLaren. Alpine announced that Piastri would drive for the team in 2023 to replace Fernando Alonso before Piastri announced himself he would not be driving for Alpine. This led to court hearings and contract disputes between Alpine and McLaren, as the Woking-based team also believed they had signed the Australian.
"Come the CRB where Alpine lost because the filings were incorrectly done," the former team boss continued, "We put out a press release and the press release has my image on it.“So, number one, nothing to do with me – I wasn’t even there – but, number two, the communications department that didn’t report to me thought it was a good idea to deflect the incompetency of those who were Alpine at the time by putting my picture on the release.”
'No control over the entire team'
Szafnauer also claimed that he had no control over the entire team, something he wasn't aware of before joining Alpine. "I didn’t have control over the entire team. So, for example, I knew straight away, HR didn’t report to me. [They] reported up through France. The finance office didn’t report to me. They reported up through France. The communications department didn’t report to me, and the marketing group, commercial didn’t report to me, and that in itself I knew was going to be problematic.
"No, I wasn't aware. Before I took the job, it was ‘everybody’s reporting to me’ – I get there and that’s not the case. And I knew at the beginning… I thought I could manage it, but I knew it’s problematic." Szafnauer concluded.