Oscar Piastri has revealed he signed his McLaren Formula 1 contract at a “service station car park in the UK”.
After winning the Formula 2 championship in 2021, Piastri became Alpine’s reserve driver for the 2022 season.
The Enstone-based outfit was set to lose its star driver Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin, therefore, they promoted the young Australian driver to a full-time seat in F1.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Piastri took to social media to deny the reports that he had signed a contract with Alpine for 2023.
The month before, his manager Mark Webber had agreed to a contract with McLaren for his driver to replace Daniel Ricciardo and race alongside Lando Norris.
Alpine argued with the F1 Contract Recognition Board that it had a contract with Piastri for 2023, but the CRB ruled in favour of McLaren.
Two seasons later, Piastri has reflected on the contract saga in an interview for the Gentleman’s Journal.
“Yeah, it was quite a complicated 12 months to get into F1,” he said.
“Signing my F1 contract was a very special thing – even if there was some controversy around it, it was very, very special.”
Piastri went on to disclose the remarkable location of where he signed the contract before all the controversy unfolded.
He added: “It was in a service station car park in the UK, so it wasn’t the most glamorous place to be signing an F1 contract, but it was still a very special feeling.”
Otmar Szafnauer: Ex-Alpine boss explains his side of the story
Alpine was left embarrassed after it had lost out on the multiple F1 World Champion Alonso and one of its star talents in Piastri.
It was then Team Principal, Otmar Szafnauer, who took most of the blame and back in October he revealed his version of events speaking on the High Performance Podcast.
“In November [2021], there was a two-week time window where it could have been done and it wasn’t,” Szafnauer said.
“Come the CRB, where Alpine lost because the filings were incorrectly done, we put out a press release and the press release has my image on it.”
The 60-year-old went on to explain how Alpine used him as a scapegoat for the Piastri saga as he claimed he was not to blame whatsoever.
In his debut season for McLaren after the summer of controversy, Piastri finished ninth in the Drivers’ Standings claiming his first points in F1, first podium finish and first Sprint race victory.
In 2024, Piastri helped McLaren win the Constructors’ Championship with Norris, taking his maiden victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old was also victorious at the Azerbaijan GP and finished fourth in the Drivers’ Standings in another successful year for the young star.
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