Soldato
When he put out that Tweet stating he was definitely not driving for Alpine - he must have had something in writing. No way you'd be that confident without being sure.
Poll: Official 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Race Thread - Jeddah Circuit - Race 2/23
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I think Alonso jumped ship because Alpine were trying to secure Piastri, and he didn't want to be left high and dry. That being said, with the investment AM have, it makes sense to move to them.
I have never seen the exact timelines for things laid out.
Even in the latest Drive to Survive they appeared to make out that Oscar did Alpine the dirty, without clarifying that he in fact signed for McLaren before Alonso left.
Caporegime
I don't think any public timeline is available, but statements from all sides make clear (i) Alpine wanted Alonso not Piastri, (ii) Alpine had no contractual claim on Piastri when he chose to leave, and (iii) Piastri had a McLaren contract either signed on in final negotiation prior to Alpine announcing him
They mostly quoted Szafnauer who said a whole bunch of frankly outrageous things both at the time and to camera on DtS. The person whose reputation should have suffered most from this is Szafnauer.
More generally, even if he had free choice, I don't think it was a bad choice for Piastri. McLaren had probably the better car last year, a new wind tunnel coming on line soon, and a lot of promise. Even this year I think they're better than people realise, I suspect in a clean race they're about level with Alpine.
Alpine were planning on parking Piastri at Williams until Alonso aged out of the sport, although AFAIK nothing was signed on that. They offered Alonso a one year contract with an option to extend, but he didn't want it. It's pretty clear Alpine were prioritising Alonso over Piastri and thoroughly deserved to lose him after all the crud they pulled. Szafnauer's histrionics after the fact were even worse.
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I see. It does make more sense that he signed with McLaren before ever knowing Alonso was leaving.
Yea, I don't think there was any relation between the 2 but more Alpine being stupid.
In an ideal world they would have dropped Ocon for Piastri, but then we'd miss arguably the best part of the season so far i.e. Alonso on the podium.
Soldato
Whether Piastri’s mentor and manager, Mark Webber knew is another matter. He and Alonso have always had a good relationship. I think David Coulthard even commented about this at the race after it was announced.
Caporegime
I think they stuffed up in taking both Ocon and Alonso on contracts for 2022, yet alone 2023. Maybe they weren't to know that Piastri would take a third consecutive junior series win but it should have been obvious to them that they had a exceptional talent waiting in the wings and that they needed to keep space clear for him. Alpine do not have the luxury of either a formal seat on a junior team or a relationship with another team that would be sure to let them bring someone in, so they needed to keep space in their main team. Their failure to do so is what ultimately cost them.
It's also the problem of Junior teams. In the past, Piastri would have comfortably found an F1 seat somewhere, but being tied to Alpine in 2022 ruled him out of most teams and left him cooling his heals on the sidelines.
Soldato
Alpine were playing silly buggers with both Alonso and Piastri. They wouldn't offer Alonso a 2 year contract which he wanted, and wouldn't offer Piastri the seat instead. As such both said sod this, and took matters into their own hands.
Caporegime
I think their offer to Alonso seemed fair, but it clearly wasn't enough for him and Alonso has no ****s to give.
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