Reigning Formula 2 champion Piastri is currently in the middle of a legal dispute over his future. Alpine claim they have a contract in place for him to drive one of their single-seaters next year, but the Australian has denied this and said he will not drive for the French team in 2023 as he is trying to take the seat of Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren.
The possible departure of Oscar Piastri from the Enstone structure has not gone down very well with team principal Otmar Szafnauer , who said at Spa that he wished the young Australian would “show a little more integrity” after Alpine backed his race during the lower categories.
Szafnauer ‘s comments were heard by McLaren Racing managing director Zak Brown , who fired back by questioning the Alpine director, saying he was perhaps not the most appropriate person to make such a comment.
“I don’t know the details of that relationship, so I think it would be unfair to take a position on this, because I just don’t know,” Brown said in an interview for Sky Sport s.
“But judging from recent times, from the way Fernando Alonso has gone and caught Otmar by surprise, also not too long ago his team was fined €400,000 and 15 points, I’m not sure he has a lot of credibility to comment on ethics.
Brown referenced the controversial brake ducts of the Szafnauer -led Racing Point team at the start of the 2020 season, when it was discovered that the Silverstone structure had illegally designed such parts, copying Mercedes. That was remedied with a 15-point penalty in the constructors’ championship and a €400,000 fine from the FIA.
Alonso also revealed at Spa on Thursday that Szafnauer was not aware of the talks over his contract renewal and was therefore not informed of his move to Aston Martin until the press release was made public.
This is not the first time that Szafnauer and Brown have engaged in a war of words. Amid the brake duct controversy in 2020, the Romanian claimed that the McLaren man had “no idea what he was talking about” and that he “knows more about historic racing than Formula 1”.
It should be remembered that the Formula 1 Contract Recognition Board plans to make a decision on the Piastri case next Monday, a very important ruling for both McLaren and Alpine ‘s plans from 2023.
