Oscar Piastri is now firmly reaping the rewards of his decision to reject Alpine to join McLaren, with the Australian sat atop the 2025 F1 drivers’ standings after six rounds.
The Melbourne native is even the first Australian since Mark Webber, who now serves as his manager, back in 2010 to lead the Formula 1 drivers’ championship. He can also become the third Australian to lift a title and the first since Alan Jones in 1980 if Piastri sees out his lead.
Piastri securing his fourth win of the 2025 F1 season so far last time out at the Miami Grand Prix took the McLaren racer 16 points clear of his teammate, Lando Norris, in the standings. It also marked the 24-year-old’s fifth win from 52 Grand Prix entries since his debut in 2023.
Alpine tried to ‘bully’ Oscar Piastri with their statement he would replace Fernando Alonso
McLaren stole Piastri from Alpine ahead of the 2023 season after CEO Zak Brown decided to replace Daniel Ricciardo. The Perth native failed to adapt to McLaren’s car after joining from Alpine in 2021 and was dominated by Norris, who won their Grand Prix head-to-head 31-12.
Piastri had been a part of Alpine’s driver academy since 2020, and won the 2020 Formula 3 plus 2021 Formula 2 titles in his rookie seasons with their backing. And after he was held to an F1 reserve driver role in 2022, Alpine wanted Piastri to replace Fernando Alonso in 2023.
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But Brown feels Alpine tried to ‘bully’ Piastri into taking up the Spaniard’s seat after Alonso jumped ship to replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin. He even feels the Enstone natives acted behind his back, leading Piastri to publicly refute Alpine’s statement of his promotion.
Brown told the Daily Mail: “Their press release saying Oscar would get the race seat in 2023 did not even contain a quote from him. They did not even ask him. They put the statement out as if it were a done deal. It was used to bully him into doing what they wanted.”
McLaren caught ex-Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer with his ‘pants down’ to sign Oscar Piastri
Alpine reacted immediately to Alonso confirming he would replace Vettel at Aston Martin by issuing a statement that Piastri would take over the two-time F1 champion’s seat. Yet it only took Piastri a matter of hours to clarify it was ‘without my agreement’ and that he was not.
McLaren also soon announced that they had already reached an agreement with Piastri for the then-21-year-old to replace Ricciardo. It led to a fierce battle between the rivals before the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board unanimously confirmed only McLaren had a valid deal.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Alpine’s then-team principal Otmar Szafnauer later revealed Alpine made mistakes as Piastri never signed his contract offer that would have given them the option to promote him to F1. But Brown does not buy Szafnauer’s excuse that the contract issue ensued before he joined.
“He got caught with his pants down,” Brown added. “He claims that when he arrived Oscar was not tied down in the way he should have been and that it had nothing to do with him.
“But when you come in, you have to assess everything and fix it. Maybe he should have taken a look.”
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