How Alpine let Piastri slip into the hands of McLaren
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We explain how Alpine got it so wrong with its Oscar Piastri deal in the latest edition of The Race F1 Podcast.
Scott Mitchell-Malm joins Edd Straw to discuss the Contract Recognition Board ruling that Piastri had a valid contract to race for McLaren in 2023 and '24 and not Alpine, which was the big talking point in the Dutch Grand Prix paddock on the first day of practice at Zandvoort.
The timeline of the deals, and how that intertwines with McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo being told his services were no longer required, is laid out - particularly with regards to the revelation that Piastri's contract was signed as long ago as July 4.
We also discuss Alpine's likely choice as team-mate to Esteban Ocon having missed out on both Fernando Alonso and Piastri, and what it means for the rest of the F1 driver market.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | The Race is on, and Oscar Piestri will definitely be a McLaren driver in 2023, with the |
| 0:16.5 | Contract Recognition Board finally ruling in its favour in the dispute with Alpi. |
| 0:20.9 | So why did McLaren win the tug of war? |
| 0:23.0 | And what does it mean for the rest of the F1 driver market? |
| 0:26.0 | I'm Ed Straw and joining us to answer those questions and many more is Scott Mitchell Malman. |
| 0:31.9 | Well, it's taken a while but the Contract Recognition Board has spoken and it unanimously decided that Piastri is contracted to McLaren. |
| 0:38.7 | Despite Alpine's repeated insistence, it had Piaastri signed up. Scott, you've been all over |
| 0:43.8 | this story for some time and you've been charging around the Zandvoort Paddock today, |
| 0:47.6 | getting more background on exactly what has been going on behind the scenes. To me, it just |
| 0:52.3 | seems like a comedy of errors on Alpine's part. |
| 0:55.2 | Yeah, certainly the more we learn, the more that is exactly how it comes across. |
| 1:01.1 | It's been a case of initially wanting to give Alpine the benefit of the doubt when we were |
| 1:05.5 | hearing from them at the very start of the summer break and hearing about how Alonzo had led |
| 1:10.2 | them on and then moved to |
| 1:12.0 | Aston Martin secretly and how they had spent all this time and money on Oscar Piastri only for |
| 1:18.1 | him to then try and find an alternative even though he had a valid contract. That's what |
| 1:23.9 | Alpine said all along. They've been questioning in his integrity. They've been |
| 1:27.8 | wondering why he would even want to leave. And then the more, the longer it's gone on, the more that |
| 1:35.9 | their language has changed and it's more sort of shifted towards a moral argument rather |
| 1:42.2 | than a legal one, the more it sounded a bit like |
| 1:45.2 | Alpine's position is shaky. And worse than that, now that we've actually got into the meat |
... |
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