Despite ugly feud last season, Alpine CEO reveals he would have allowed Oscar Piastri to leave on one condition

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi recently claimed that he would have happily let Oscar Piastri leave for McLaren if he had contacted the team in a more formal manner.

Piastri's debut in F1 was heavily clouded by controversies and drama. Soon after Fernando Alonso surprised Alpine by signing for Aston Martin for 2023, the French team acted quickly to promote Piastri to F1. However, the young Australian simply announced on social media that he would not be joining Alpine's F1 team next year. A few months later, McLaren announced that Oscar Piastri would be driving for them.

Speaking about Piastri's fiasco on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Laurent Rossi initially mentioned that he understands how tough it can be for F1 drivers to get a seat in a good team and perform under immense pressure. He said:

"Look, I wouldn’t call drivers disloyal to be honest. They also have their own careers to manage, and God knows it’s a difficult one because there’s really few of them. And it’s ferocious, as you said. And they don’t have an easy one, right? If they have a bad year, they just get the boot, and it’s tough. So I think they also need to manage their own interests."

However, he later criticized Oscar Piastri for the lack of communication. Rossi assured that he would have happily let him go to any other team if he came to Alpine and discussed the situation properly. The team's CEO added:

"Now, there’s probably a way to do it. I would have not necessarily prevented Oscar from leaving should he have come to us with something a bit more structured, Let’s say, ‘hey guys, I’m also having this offer, what do we do, can we talk? It just caught us by surprise. I get it also caught Ricciardo by surprise, which says a lot right?"

He concluded:

"That might be a little candid. And we don’t want to be candid anymore. It’s okay, it’s over now. We learn the lessons for ourselves. The rest is just one person. I actually wish him well and that’s about it."

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Alpine team boss happy to have Andretti-Cadillac as an 11th team in F1

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer supports the idea of an 11th team on the F1 grid as Andretti-Cadillac tries to enter the sport. Szafnauer spoke about how he is okay with more teams if it is good for the sport's growth in popularity. TopGear quoted him as saying:

"We will not say no, if it’s good for the sport, I’m all for it. The real question is: ‘Is it better for the sport or isn’t it?’ To me, if you have 11 teams and 22 drivers instead of 20 and they’re all competitive, then it’s better for the fans. And if it’s better for the fans, it’s got to be better for the sport."

Though the Andretti-Cadillac team is getting support from Alpine's boss, most team principals are against the prospect. They are unwilling to further dilute the prize pot and weaken their finances.