Oscar Piastri case, Alpine goes down hard and anticipates next move

The case related to the Australian pilot is still causing discussion

Still holding court in F1 is the case related to Oscar Piastri, whom Alpine had announced as Fernando Alonso’s replacement for 2023 before the Austrian driver’s sharp denial within hours.

Otmar Szafnauer, team principal of the French team, confirmed to the international agency ‘Reuters’ that, having overcome the embarrassment over the bizarre succession of confirmations and denials, Alpine itself is ready to go on the counterattack.

“We are 90 percent sure that we will take the case to court,” Szafnauer said, “that’s what we plan to do. If the CRB (the FIA’s contract recognition bureau, ed.) says ‘your license is only valid at Alpine,’ and he says ‘that’s great but I’ll never drive for them, I’ll be stationary for a year,’ then it’s time to ask for compensation.”

“We didn’t sit down with accountants to calculate everything we spent. We will have to if we go to the High Court. We have to digest everything that just happened,” concluded Alpine’s team principal.