The world of Formula 1 could hardly have imagined living a more turbulent month of August, from the point of view of sports politics, compared to the one that is taking shape in these weeks after the sensational explosion of the case ‘Piastri-Alpine‘. The story involving the young Australian talent and the French team has left millions of fans stunned, generating a ripple effect that is stalling the entire Circus driver market. The facts are now known: Piastri has publicly announced that he does not want to drive for the Renault-owned team after it had officially announced that he had promoted the 2021 F2 champion to starter driver for next season.
This move is linked to a pre-agreement signed by Piastri himself with McLaren looking forward to 2023, apparently before the Enstone team exercised its option on the young talent from Melbourne. The Woking team, however, has never officially commented on the story, without however making any denials regarding the alleged agreement with the pilot managed by Mark Webber. The peculiarity, revealed in recent days by the French site AutoHebdo, is that the FIA Contract Recognition Boardthe only body appointed to certify the validity of the agreements between drivers and teams in F1, would have considered both contracts formally correct: the one deposited by McLaren and the one that would bind Piastri to Alpine for 2023 as well.
The embarrassing chaos generated by this situation, which is also indirectly involving many third parties – from Daniel Ricciardo to the Williams team – risks being unraveled only by the intervention of the lawyers. In these hours, however, also the FIA, by the voice of its president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, tried to take control of the affair. The general perception, in fact, is that even the Federation did not show enough attention to what was happening in these frantic negotiations. Ben Sulayem has published a cryptic tweet, which does not mention any of the parties involved but which clearly refers to the delicate story in progress. “The FIA Driver Contract Recognition Board (CRB) was established to address issues of contractual priority between drivers and F1 teams. For this reason we rely on their decision to resolve any conflict”Wrote the FIA boss.
Words that seem to implicitly suggest that, in the end, it will be the much discussed CRB that will have to definitively determine in which team Piastri will race in 2023 and, last but not least, whether there will be any cash compensation that will have to be paid to one or the other team. In fact, this tweet replies to the words of Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine team principal, who had announced an almost certain appeal to the High Court of the United Kingdom. At this point in the story, it cannot even be ruled out that, should the CRB agree with Alpine, Piastri could risk having to stand still for a year. Conversely, in the event of the opposite outcome, the French team would risk having the young talent who helped to grow slip out of their hands at no cost.
The @FiA‘s Driver Contract Recognition Board (CRB) was set up to deal with contract priority issues between drivers and @ F1 teams. That’s why we rely on their decision to resolve any conflict.
– Mohammed Ben Sulayem (@Ben_Sulayem) August 11, 2022
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