Alpine have doubled down on their belief that they have signed Oscar Piastri for the 2023 Formula 1 season despite the driver's claim that he will not be racing for the team.
The Enstone-based team said on Tuesday afternoon that it had signed the Australian to replace Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard will move to Aston Martin at the end of the year to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel.
But around 90 minutes later Piastri, who had not been quoted in Alpine's announcement, released a statement of his own. In it, he said the team was "wrong" and asserted: "I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year".
That bombshell statement send F1 fans into a frenzy and appeared to thrust the team's plans into chaos. But Alpine seem confident that they are on solid ground. A spokesperson told BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson : "We believe we are legally correct in our statement but don't have anything further to say."
The tone of Piastri's statement suggests that he too believes he is in the right. The whole fiasco comes after it was reported that his mentor and manager Mark Webber has been in negotiations to secure a seat with their midfield rivals McLaren.
Earlier in the day, Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer had claimed that Piastri is contracted to the team and therefore would not be able to leave for a rival. "I'm not privy to whatever pre-arrangements he has with McLaren, if any at all," he told Autosport.
"I hear the same rumours that you do in the pitlane. But what I do know is that he does have contractual obligations to us. And we do to him. And we've been honouring those obligations all year. And those obligations, last through '23, and possibly in '24, if some options are taken up.
"And our obligations to him this year was to be a reserve driver, to also put him in last year's car for a significant amount of time. We're well over half that programme of 5000 kilometres, which isn't insignificant, in last year's car, in preparation for a race next year.
"Also FP1s, simulation work, and we've been performing those obligations on both sides. So he's been performing, we've been performing. So therefore we do have a legal contract with him into the future for '23. And if an option is taken up, for '24. So I don't know what he's done with McLaren. Like I said, I'm not privy to that."
