Oscar Piastri recalled signing his controversial McLaren F1 contract in a service station car park in the UK.

Piastri did not even wait until his F1 debut to send major shockwaves throughout the world of Formula due to the drama surrounding his snubbing of Alpine in order to secure a seat with McLaren for 2023.

Oscar Piastri reveals not ‘most glamorous’ McLaren contract signing

Winner of the Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in consecutive seasons, Piastri was a member of the Alpine Academy and when Fernando Alonso signed with Aston Martin, was announced as his replacement – only to post a now iconic-tweet to confirm that this was not the case.

A battle between McLaren and the F1 Contract Recognition Board followed, with Piastri ultimately linking-up with the team with which he claimed his first grand prix wins in 2024 after taking the chequered flag in Hungary and Azerbaijan.

Not many drivers have such a dramatic introduction to Formula   and Piastri revealed that his signature on that controversial McLaren contract was provided in quite the understated setting.

In an Gentleman’s Journal interview, Piastri said: “Yeah, it was quite a complicated 12 months to get into F1!

“Signing my F1 contract was a very special thing. Even if there was some controversy around it, it was very, very special.

“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, very special feeling.”

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Otmar Szafnauer was Alpine team boss at the time of the Piastri drama, but he has since moved to distance himself from any responsibility for the saga, which saw Alpine lose Alonso and Piastri in quick succession.

“There was a contract after he finished his F2 career where Alpine had an option on Oscar Piastri as a Formula 1 driver for Alpine, and that contract was never executed,” Szafnauer explained 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.

“Come the CRB [Contract Recognition Board], where Alpine lost because the filings were incorrectly done, we put out a press release and the press release has my image on it.

“So nothing to do with me. I wasn’t even there. But the communications department that didn’t report to me thought it was a good idea to deflect the incompetency of those that were Alpine at the time by putting my picture on the release.”

Szafnauer explained that the Alpine staff member responsible for that press release was a familiar face from his Force India days and claimed she told him “I’m sorry, I was told to do this” when Szafnauer brought it up.

“But it just showed at the time that there were some people within the Alpine organisation that were untrustworthy and that were out to get me,” he added, “so they weren’t working with me.”

Piastri is under McLaren contract until the end of the F1 2026 season.

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