Oscar Piastri made one of the most surprising moves of the ‘silly season’ when he left Alpine without his first choice to replace Fernando Alonso and sign for McLaren for the 2023 Formula 1 season . Despite the fact that the Australian had a guaranteed seat at Enstone, where he was the reserve driver, he decided to go to Woking to be the partner of Lando Norris and take the wheel of his compatriot, Daniel Ricciardo.
However, the controversy over his agreement reached the Formula 1 Contract Recognition Board [CRB], which ruled in favor of the British, considering that Alpine never had a valid right to Piastri’s services for 2023 and beyond. there. Before the decision, the Australian was criticized for his “integrity” and turning his back on the French team, who helped him in his beginnings in the lower categories.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also said he believed in “karma”, and that it would make young people more “cautious” about talking about the teams on social media. However, multiple sources have clarified that Piastri only made the decision to go to McLaren when he became frustrated with Alpine’s delay in signing a contract that he was promised multiple times but never came.
Rather than be an opportunistic move through a contractual loophole, the Australian and his manager, former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber, changed their minds because Alpine was “wandering” over what to do with him and that was delaying his appearance with the Enstones as a starter until 2025 .
The straw that broke the camel’s back came when the young driver, eager to join the French team, was informed that he would go to Williams for two years before finally ending up at Alpine.
McLaren was also in the middle of the controversy because some considered that what they did with Daniel Ricciardo was unfair, who will cease to belong to the papaya family at the end of the season, despite the fact that both parties were already aware that the situation was not the ideal.
As news of Piastri’s contract dispute broke, Woking kept quiet, but now that the case has been cleared up, team principal Andreas Seidl is in no doubt that some of the accusations leveled against the youngster pilot were “inappropriate”.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he was happy to hear what had happened, he said: “It’s good that the facts are out at the end, and it’s good that everyone has seen the verdict. So everyone can read it and draw your own conclusion in a case that was quite clear”.
“It also corrects some of the judgments that were inappropriate and unfair with Oscar [Piastri]. Now our goal is to finish the season with Daniel [Ricciardo] and then we hope to continue with Oscar, who is a great talent and has a lot of potential,” Seidl said. . “At the same time, we know there’s a lot of work ahead of him heading into his first year in Formula 1, we’re looking forward to it.”
The McLaren boss added that he was never too concerned about the team being criticized by fans for how they handled the Piastri and Ricciardo issue, as all sides were quite clear with each other: “The case was always clear, there was none. We had a contract in force, a valid CRB registration that was confirmed in July and with which there is no debate and, therefore, I can be honest. From the outside you could see less information.
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