2022 Alpine F1 Team

[ringo]

Based on events, only Piastri knew. Alpine did not. So they would assume the heads of agreement was being honored.
So basically.. Piasti is still a snake and Alpine will just have find another driver.

What a load of nonsense. If Alpine wanted Piastri to race their car in 2023, they had every chance to offer Piastri an Alpine race driver contract in May or June or earlier.

A Heads of Terms agreement is non-binding and not a contract by definition. The Alpine race team had every opportunity to sign a binding racing driver contract instead at a suitable time... Yet by May or June, they had not even put Piastri in the car for Free Practice!

So you are saying they should have dumped Alonso?
I know they considered the backlash from doing that. Especially from his fans and the big sponsorships he can bring.

I do not think Alpine did anything wrong. Credit to them they have two good drivers so it was hard to make a decision early in the season.
For Mclaren they had 1 performing driver so it was easy for them to throw Daniel under the bus and sign someone else.

[JordanMugen]

So you are saying they should have dumped Alonso?

Of course. If Piastri is your future driver, that is exactly what you should do. Or if Alonso is your future driver then sign Alonso to the 2 year plus options deal he wants and tell Piastri to go elsewhere.

Now, through incompetence, they have neither driver.

I do not think Alpine did anything wrong.

They did great, the contract recognition board agrees with their excellent contractual work (not), and they can have their third choice driver. Great job!

[AR3-GP]

Alpine did nothing wrong? Otmar is that you?

[SmallSoldier]

Good article from The Race with a bit more background information:

https://the-race.com/formula-1/how-mcla ... pine-knew/

[JordanMugen]

I do not think Alpine did anything wrong.

Alpine did nothing wrong? Otmar is that you?

As revealed by RacingNews365, Alpine had only operated on a ‘heads of terms’ agreement through 2022 having consistently delayed sending a contract that Piastri’s manager Mark Webber regularly chased.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/how-mcla ... pine-knew/

Whoops! It just gets worse and worse with regards to Alpine's incompetence.

However, as RacingNews365 wrote in August, Piastri had never signed a document with Alpine for a 2023 race seat in F1, which has been confirmed by the CRB ruling.

[Alpine F1 Team Legal Director] Benedicte Mercer stated that she was "the bottleneck" due to a lack of legal resources at the team. Mercer wrote to Webber in February 2022 stating that she felt like: "I am in the spin cycle of a washing machine" and that "things should ease off after the launch - which means I can pick things up right where I left off on Oscar's contract."

With no other option, she was forced into treating the Terms Sheet of November 2021 as a binding contract, adding the words "legally binding Heads of Terms" to the document. This phrase was not present on the original document sent to Piastri the previous year.

https://racingnews365.com/crb-ruling-de ... i-contract

Yeah that's how the law works (probably). Not sending the (2023 onwards) contract that your junior driver's manager requested and then casually adding "legally binding" to the top of a non-binding Heads of Terms agreement definitely seems like a clear error by Alpine F1 Team IMO.

On May 19th, Alpine sent a document to Piastri entitled 'Oscar Piastri 2023/2026 proposal,' detailing its F1 plans over a four-year time-span. The "road map" called for a season at Williams in 2023 with the intention of staying there in 2024, albeit with a break clause on Alpine's side to recall him for the second season, needing to be activated by July 31st 2023.

For 2025 onwards, Piastri was planned to be at Alpine full-time, meaning he potentially could have had to wait until then to make his race debut with the Enstone-based team.

https://racingnews365.com/crb-ruling-de ... i-contract

It must be said that Alpine's offer seems far inferior to McLaren's offer. Alpine seemed to have little to no intention in placing Piastri in their race drive in a reasonable timeframe, above and beyond no intention to present a 2023-on contract to sign!

[RedNEO]

the Rencken article from RacingNews365 is extremely damning. Rossi is running the team into the ground. One lawyer basically dealing with all the teams contracts and sounding like she is up to her neck in it.. this is just one side of it, can you imagine what other departments who have been slimmed down to skeleton crews are like? The mass sackings have been unbelievable since he took over no wonder they let Oscar slip through and then he just carried on running..

[AR3-GP]

The Rencken piece from R365 is just embarassing.

[SmallSoldier]

So not only did McLaren took Piastri from Alpine, they are also been paid? According to: https://racingnews365.com/crb-ruling-de ... i-contract

“Alpine to pay legal costs

The CRB also ruled that Alpine is responsible for the legal costs of all parties involved in the case, including McLaren, Piastri himself and the board members.

The team must pay £229,965.00 to McLaren, £120,086.14 to Piastri with the arbitrators' fees ranging from £34,000 to £74,400.

An additional £16,000 is required to be paid to cover the CRB interests, meaning Alpine is liable for a total of £530, 467.14 GBP in legal fees, on top of its own costs.”

Alpine has to feel embarrassed, not only did they loss two drivers that they clearly wanted on their team (neither Alonso’s or Paistri’s exits were the outcomes Alpine wanted), they managed to make it public… If only Otmar would keep his mouth shut it wouldn’t have been as bad… If I’m Luca, I would force Otmar to write 1000 times: “When asked about legal things, I should only say that the legal team is looking after it and I have no comment until resolved”.

[diffuser]

I will agree that letting Alonso get away and the Piastri thing are really bad.

That being said the team is really putting together a good product on the track. They continue to release update after update at each race. For Alpine's sake, they get Gasly and that he becomes the next Sainz for them.

[AR3-GP]

I will agree that letting Alonso get away and the Piastri thing are really bad.

That being said the team is really putting together a good product on the track. They continue to release update after update at each race. For Alpine's sake, they get Gasly and that he becomes the next Sainz for them.

I have a hunch that Gasly will be the faster qualifier, and Ocon the better racer.

[piast9]

But Gasly and Ocon do not get along very well, do they? I don't know what's the reason for that but I don't see them as teammates.

[AR3-GP]

But Gasly and Ocon do not get along very well, do they? I don't know what's the reason for that but I don't see them as teammates.

As long as they don't crash on the circuit, what is the problem? I think that the the rivalry has the potential to bring the best out of both drivers. It's the best way to move on from this Piastri saga. Alpine need to jump on it and look to the future. Besides, we are not at the point where the drivers are what is holding Alpine back from the title. It's by far the car which is missing some tricks. When the car is regularly fighting for podiums, then we can argue about which driver isn't good enough.

[djos]

Alpine management claiming they have a contract with Oscar.

[diffuser]

But Gasly and Ocon do not get along very well, do they? I don't know what's the reason for that but I don't see them as teammates.

As long as they don't crash on the circuit, what is the problem? I think that the the rivalry has the potential to bring the best out of both drivers. It's the best way to move on from this Piastri saga. Alpine need to jump on it and look to the future. Besides, we are not at the point where the drivers are what is holding Alpine back from the title. It's by far the car which is missing some tricks. When the car is regularly fighting for podiums, then we can argue about which driver isn't good enough.

I agree but I also think they need to reel Ocon in a bit. Some of the stuff he did to Alonso to prevent him from passing was way over the line.

[djos]

Ocon plus Gasly would be a bad idea, they don’t get along and there would be fireworks for sure.