Alpine boss Laurent Rossi says Oscar Piastri has chosen a non-traditional path to a race seat in F1 by opting for McLaren, adding that the Aussie's disregard for Williams and for spending a formative year with the British outfit was "not good from".
The FIA's Contract Recognition Board recently settled the contractual case between Alpine and its junior driver, ruling that Piastri was not contracted to the French outfit and therefore free to race for McLaren next season.
In the aftermath of the ruling, it came to light that Piastri and manager Mark Webber were led to sign with McLaren after realizing Alpine's crucial lack of contractual diligence, which perhaps also reflected the team's lack of "love" towards its young charger.
But Rossi reiterated Alpine's criticism of Piastri's conduct and the questionable values it perhaps embodies in the Frenchman's view.
The Alpine boss also underscored Piastri's apparent unwillingness to spend a formative year, or two, with Williams before returning to Enstone, an approach followed by many other young drivers during their first years in the sport.
"It’s very disappointing," said Rossi, quoted by The Race and speaking publicly for the first time on the matter involving Piastri.
"We’ve been extremely committed. We’ve been extremely loyal. We’ve been investing a lot.
"We made technical mistakes, legal technical mistakes, which basically left the door ajar. We never thought – it was a bit of oversight for sure – we never thought we had to worry about us.
"Because when you provide so much to a driver, it’s almost tradition that you get back in return the driving of that driver for you.
"George Russell spent three years at Williams, a good school if any, to learn the ropes and then go back to the mothership.
"Charles Leclerc did the same a year before going back to Ferrari, Max Verstappen did the same, Sebastian Vettel did the same.
"The list is long. It’s normal to go back to the team that invested so much in you.
"He himself acknowledges that he didn’t want the seat at Williams, that’s as simple as that.
"First and foremost, we disagree with this attitude because this is not what you do, it’s not good form.
"But good form doesn’t seem to be prevalent."
Piastri's integrity has been publicly called into question by Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer, and Rossi echoes the American's judgment.
While acknowledging his company's complacency on the legal front, Rossi insists the team's level of investment and commitment towards its young driver should have prevailed over the Piastri camp's frustrations with Alpine's legal department.
"It’s not pushing too far to say that we’ve been extremely disappointed because we were expecting him to stay true to our investment and our work," said Rossi.
"So, while we made mistakes, we feel like we stand for values.
"That didn’t happen for him, obviously he leveraged the opportunity to shop around and very likely get a better deal.
"I guess things happen for a reason. We don’t necessarily share the same values. So perhaps it’s better to part ways now."
As far as Rossi is concerned, Piastri and Webber's grievances towards Alpine were an attempt to "find convenient excuses" to justify their new-found allegiance to McLaren, and especially their acceptance of "a better offer".
"When you start pointing at other things to distract people and use the ‘I didn’t feel the love’, sorry, but I give you way more love than any other team give to their proteges," Rossi explained.
"And I’m talking about visible love, not patting the back. It’s the kind of love that every driver would love to receive.
"When you do all of that [what Alpine has done] you cannot talk about no love. And then when you start saying ‘oh, form whatever was not sent at the right moment’ – I’m sorry, that’s an excuse.
"Let’s assume for a second, we will have put our contract and the McLaren one in front of him. Which one do you think he would have taken?
"There’s no question of milestones, deadlines. It’s a question of: he obviously wanted to go to McLaren.
"And so I surmise that’s because he got a better offer, and I don’t think it’s a sporting one. Because it’s a very similar proposition.
"And I would even contend ours is better because we are a works team and he’s been trained, he knows everyone in the team, so it’s probably a better environment.
"I can only assume it’s another criteria, love that’s measured in perhaps different units.
"That’s life. But I don’t think it sets a good precedent. I mean, clearly, he differentiates himself from all of the very good drivers, excellent drivers before him that all went through that kind of process.
"Perhaps he’s better than all of them. It’s a long list of very impressive champions, perhaps he’s the greatest of all.
"But even if he is, we don’t share the same values. That’s the idea. We don’t share the same values."
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