Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi pulled no punches as he criticised Oscar Piastri for turning his back on the team, which has supported him since 2020.Piastri is the current Alpine test and reserve driver and was announced as the team's replacement for Fernando Alonso for 2023.Rossi revealed that Alpine had even secured Piastri a drive at Williams for 2023 before it was known that Alonso would depart, but that the 21-year-old wasn't too keen on the idea and shopped around for a better offer.In the end, it was McLaren who secured the young driver's services for 2023 after the FIA's Contract Recognition Board had to make a ruling.
Rossi has since slammed Piastri's behaviour, claiming the young man perhaps doesn't share Alpine's values.Stay up to speed on the latest Formula 1 news by subscribing to our FREE newsletter, 'The Undercut'An official word"We made some mistakes, we made some legal technical mistakes," Rossi told the official F1 website. "We left the door ajar by not forcing him in with a contract that is so tight he couldn't move."Why did we do that?
It's a bit of an oversight because we never thought that when you give so much to someone, when you give them training, a reserve role, a seat in a partner team, he will not take it after being supported for so many years and winning the championship through your support.READ: OPINION | Alpine dug its own hole...
and neither Alonso nor Piastri are to blame"Like George [Russell] before him, who went to Williams before returning to Mercedes, like Charles [Leclerc] who went to Sauber before returning to Ferrari, like Max [Verstappen] and like Sebastian [Vettel], who both raced for Toro Rosso before driving for Red Bull, they all did a 'junior' team before moving up."I'm a bit