gshevlin wrote: ↑29 Jul 2023, 01:18
Everything I have read about the Oscar Piastri fiasco suggests that the negotiations with Piastri (such as they were) were being handled by Rossi himself and one or two legal eagles in Alpine, and Otmar was not involved. Essentially, Alpine were trying to have their cake and eat it by getting Fernando Alonso to renew his contract, while proposing to farm Piastri out to Williams. Piastri didn't want to do that, and Alonso was offered a 1 year deal which insulted him, so he left. A senior Alpine legal employee left at the end of the season, which many people saw as the real blame being allocated. By that time, Piastri was long gone.
Yup, Rossi wanted too see if Piastri was capable of replacing Alonso without taking the risk of looking like a fool. Which is somewhat cut throat but typical of F1 politics. The biggest mistake was assuming they were no desirable options for either Alonso or Piastri better than Alpine. Really amateur stuff. And while Otmar was not involved in the botched Pisatri contract, his PR campaign against Piastri was really underhanded and he deserves everything he got just for that. He was also the one trying to strongarm Fernando in negotiations, talking about his age related concerns and how he needs to prove it for a renewal knowing full well they had no intentions of renewing after one year had Piastri seemed competent at Williams.
None of this is a surprise. I had read some unflattering info about Rossi from Paddock insiders very early in his tenure and somewhat confirmed by Prost post his departure. Always found Otmar to be a bit weasely. I think Binotto was a good leader for the technical side. Maybe should hire someone else for overall team management.
The fact that this is still a thing after almost three quarters of a decade is the real issue. Alpine just havent been getting their basics right and its hard to understand how that can be the case with a team with enough resources over such a period of time.