'I don't regret that': Former Alpine boss doubles down on Oscar Piastri spray three years from ugly split

Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has doubled down on criticism of Oscar Piastri for his handling of the contract bungle that led to his signing with McLaren in 2023.

An Alpine Junior driver, Piastri was the logical replacement for Fernando Alonso when in 2022 he shocked the sport by announcing he would move to Aston Martin for 2023.

A short time later, the team announced Piastri would indeed step into the seat having spent a year on the sidelines as reserve driver.

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But shortly after that announcement, Piastri pressed send on what would quickly become one of the most iconic tweets in F1 history in which he rejected the promotion and confirmed he would not be driving for Alpine.

A short time later, Daniel Ricciardo announced he'd effectively been sacked by McLaren, who in turn announced Piastri as its star signing for 2023.

So began months of legal back-and-forth between Alpine and McLaren that went all the way to the Contract Recognition Board – a legal body set up in the early 1990s to settle contract disputes in F1.

Then-team principal, Szafnauer said Piastri should have "acted with more integrity" in dealing with the team, and that McLaren chief executive Zak Brown should be "embarrassed" with his own behaviour.

When asked if he had any regrets over that comment, the Romanian-American doubled down.

"I don't regret that – we ran Oscar in over 5000km in a two-year-old car," he said on The Race's The Team Principal Podcast.

"That was a significant amount of money, millions to do that. If Oscar knew that he was using Alpine to get that mileage under his belt and seat time ... knowing he was off to McLaren, that's what I meant by that. And, no, I don't regret saying that."

While he wound back the Brown comments, Szafnauer suggested it was disingenuous of Piastri to continue to take part in the team's testing program.

"If you spot an opportunity like that, and you think you can get them as as they did, that's OK," he said.

"It's just this notion of undue enrichment, (where) you take part of a contract on one hand, and then you don't fulfill your bit of the contract.

"You have a contract, say it's not signed properly, you know that, but the other side is delivering their end of the bargain of that contract, and you have no intention on delivering yours.

"What you should do is say, 'you know what, keep your test days. I'm not gonna do this. I'm gonna go over here'."

Piastri, who had won the 2020 F3 and 2021 F2 titles in consecutive years, was able to join McLaren because a crucial piece of paperwork was not signed within a two-week window in November 2021.

Unfortunately for Szafnauer, he didn't start at the team until March 2022, which meant he became the mouthpiece for and face of a bungle over which he had no control and no ability to salvage.

The theory goes the contract – widely believed to have been in relation to a race seat for 2023 – was in fact signed by the Piastri camp within the window, but the Alpine staffer responsible for submitting it with the CRB before the deadline failed to do so.

That error meant Piastri, unknown to the team, was a free agent. Szafnauer said he had no knowledge of the missed deadline until the documents were opened in front of the CRB, who would later rule in McLaren's favour.

To make matters worse, Piastri was the third driver to leave the team in barely two years. Daniel Ricciardo announced in 2020 he would quit the team, before Alonso's exit.

Piastri was also highly rated by teams up and down pit lane. As he sits atop the 2025 drivers' standings, 13 points clear of teammate Lando Norris having won four of the seven races, Alpine sit ninth of the 10 teams in the constructor's championship.

The bungle is without doubt one of the biggest contract fumbles in F1 history. Unsurprisingly, the Alpine team lawyer in charge was shown the door.

Three years on, Szafnauer insisted he had no hard feelings towards Piastri or his manager Mark Webber.

"He wanted Oscar to get in a Formula 1 seat, we worked towards that, and I think Mark and probably his legal team saw a bit of a a loophole when Alpine didn't sign him in the two weeks," Szafnauer said.

"They used that to their advantage to get him in a Formula 1 seat. That was their aim and their goal, and they used everything at their disposal to put Oscar in a Formula 1 car.

"You can't blame him for that, that's what he trained to do his entire life. That's what his goal was. And then when you had the opportunity, you have to take it.

"There are many drivers that get to that point and then don't take that next step, even if they've won a Formula 2 championship. Oftentimes they don't get that chance because there's so many drivers in the lower formulas, but (at) the pinnacle, there's only 20 of them.

"Those 20 don't come up all at the same time – you might get one or two. Last year (2024-2025) was one of the biggest driver changes, where we had six rookies that came in. But the year before that (2023-2024) we had no new drivers.

"So at the pinnacle, there aren't many opportunities. So when there is one, and you've spent your entire life getting ready for that one, you've got to do what it takes to take it."