McLaren chief Zak Brown has hit back at Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer as the explosive saga surrounding driver Oscar Piastri continues.
Szafnauer accused Piastri of lacking integrity after the Australian sensationally opposed the team announcement that he would be driving for them in 2023 in place of the departing Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard is moving to Aston Martin to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel.
The Australian has long been touted as a future star of the sport, having already won world titles in Formula 2 and Formula 3. And there was little surprise when he was seemingly confirmed as Alonso's successor.
However, the 21-year-old then threw a huge spanner in the works by tweeting : "I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year."
Szafnauer responded by claiming Piastri is contractually bound to drive for him next year, and then questioned his character by saying: "He's a promising young driver. He hasn't driven in F1 yet. And my wish for Oscar was that he had a bit more integrity."
Alpine, who have bases in both England and France, are now preparing to go to the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board on Monday. There they will argue that there was no July 31 deadline to trigger an extension in Piastri's contract, as claimed by the driver.
Piastri is widely reported to have agreed a deal with McLaren and Brown has now taken aim at Szafnauer over his use of the term 'integrity', telling Sky Sports: "Ultimately I don’t know any of the details between that relationship, so I think it would be unfair for me to take a position either way because I simply don’t know.
“But judging by recent times, the way Fernando [Alonso] has departed and caught Otmar by surprise, and not too long ago he is the recipient of a €400,000 fine and 15 points [fined], I’m not sure he comes with the highest level of credibility and making accusations around ethics.”
Brown was talking about brake duct controversy at Szafnauer’s Racing Point team at the start of the 2020 season, when the team was found to have used an illegal design process. His team received a 15-point constructors’ championship penalty and a €400,000 fine from the FIA.
Despite the bitter war of words, Szafnauer is adamant that his man will be representing him in 2023. That's despite relations having already been severely strained.
When asked if he was confident of winning Monday's ruling, he replied "Very. I have seen both sides of the argument and we are confident that Oscar signed with us back in November and there are certain things that need to be in the contract and I’m confident they’re in there."
Speaking to the F1 website, he also doubled down on his insistence his team had not done anything wrong: "I rarely like to talk about details of driver contracts but two things I can say: one, there was no ‘by the 31st of July you have to do some things or therefore you can get on’ – there’s none of that."
