Szafnauer on Piastri saga: 'Species that are selfish perish'

Alpine team boss Oscar Szafnauer suggests the team's former junior Oscar Piastri could one day pay a heavy price for his self-interested attitude towards the French outfit.

There's no question that Szafnauer is still reeling from the blow suffered by Alpine last summer, when Piastri turned his back on the team that had groomed him for F1 at its own expense only for the young Aussie to unexpectedly switch his allegiance to McLaren.

The highly-rated former FIA F3 and F2 champion had been lined up for a promotion to F1 with Alpine following Fernando Alonso's shock move to Aston Martin.

However, while the French outfit was under the impression it held a valid contract with Piastri, the FIA's contract recognition board begged to differ and gave the green light to the 21-year-old's move to McLaren for 2023 to which Piastri had contracted, unbeknownst to Alpine, as far back as last July.

• Read also: Ricciardo offers a word of advice to McLaren rookie Piastri

Having invested heavily in its junior charger and fulfilled its end of the bargain, Alpine's management was taken aback by Piastri's lack of loyalty and a resentful Szafnauer is still reeling from the episode.

"I think species that collaborate survive," Szafnauer told the media recently. "Species that are selfish perish and that’s true in history.

"I think that might apply to Formula 1 too, but let’s see what the future brings.

"We had an obligation for Oscar to either put him in our car next year or find him a seat, a loan seat somewhere else, or he became a free agent."

Szafnauer confirmed that had Alonso remained at Alpine in 2023 alongside teammate Esteban Ocon as initially planned, the French outfit would placed Piastri at Williams.

"The original plan was for him to take a seat at Williams," added the American. "Had that happened, he may have had a Williams FP1 [this year].

Only time will tell if Piastri made the right choice by opting for McLaren. But Alpine's bitterness towards its former young gun will persist.

In the wake of the disappointing outcome of its dealing with Piastri, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi suggested that the manufacturer could rein in investment in its young driver development programme.

But several months on, Szafnauer says Alpine did consider scrapping its driver academy, but in the end it remains committed to promoting young talent.

"At the time, you look at everything. I think Laurent said that we’ve got to reconsider that if we spend this money and get drivers to a certain spot and they want to go elsewhere, should we really be doing this," he said.

"That was something we looked at, but we definitely continue to be committed to the young driver programme and to the Alpine Academy."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter