When a team announces you as their official pilot Formula 1 at just 21 years of age he should be every runner’s dream, the ultimate goal for anyone. Not for Oscar Piastri. Or at least not with Alpine. The Australian has become one of the protagonists of the transfer market or silly time of 2022 after his departure Fernando Alonso Of course to Aston Martin unleash a series of very impressive moves.

Oscar Piastri he was the crown jewel of his project’s new pilots Alpine. Winner of two consecutive years of Formula 3 and 2, which is only available for Charles Leclerc and George Russell, the Melbourne native has world champion potential. The French team knew this, but with Alonso’s presence in the team and his desire to continue, it was difficult to give him a place in the side Steven Okon.

Early this season Alpine tried to put him on a team. first in McLaren temporarily in case Daniel Ricciardo could not recover from COVID-19 for Bahrain, later Williams as a substitute for an evil Nikolaos Latif. As negotiations with Alonso continued, the driver’s entourage, led by Mark Webber began moving toward a solution for 2023. As stated in his podcast The raceapparently Piastri had a clause by which Alpine had to give him a team for next season before July 31 of this year.

So after the French announced that Piastri would race with them yes or no next year, the young Australian came out to deny it. Social Networks, making it clear that this was a unilateral statement.

In Formula 1 there are precedents for almost anything and Oscar Piastri’s case with Alpine is not the first dispute between the driver and the team over contractual aspects. However, it is true that something similar had not happened for a long time.

🫣 Collapsing Alpine

Meanwhile Fernando Alonso on vacation 👍 pic.twitter.com/dMMRHoReP5

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Spain 🇪 (@sportingnewses) August 2, 2022

Jenson Button vs BAR Honda in 2005

After an exciting 2004 season where Jenson Button managing to finish third in the drivers’ championship and BAR Honda second, 2005 looked like the time the Briton would finally challenge for wins. However, the team found it very difficult to score, firstly because of the issue of understanding the car (tire wear) and secondly because of the reliability of its components.

It arrived in mid-2004 Button and his entourage reached a preliminary agreement with Williams for 2005team where he ran in 2001. The problem was that there was an option that it would keep him at Honda until 2007 at least that it should be decided in July of the same year.

Williams announced Button just days before the deadline for Button to make a decision. “We are confident, after strong legal advice, that BAR has lost Jenson and I have no doubt that he will be with the Williams-BMW F1 team for 2005.”Frank Williams said in the release.

This opened a contractual dispute that was resolved at the special meeting for these cases of Formula 1 itself which ruled in favor of BAR Honda, which retained Button.

But since then it didn’t end there the next year Williams tried again with the British facing 2006. However, in this case, it was the pilot who backed out after learning that BMW would no longer be an engine supplier.

Curiously, Otmar Szafnauer He was one of BAR Honda’s sporting officials throughout the Button affair. Asked about it recently, the Alpine executive replied:

“I’ve been here long enough, so I’ve seen this happen. When Jenson signed with Williams and ended up at BAH Honda, there was absolutely no problem.”reminded the Romanian. “Oscar is different to Jenson. Hopefully we don’t have to go down that road. Jenson at the time was doing a great job at BAR and never ended up at Williams.

Other cases in Formula 1 similar to that of Oscar Piastri and Alpine

What happened between Button and BAR Honda could be said to be the last time something like this happened, although it is worth remembering the dispute between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in 2010 where the opposite happened, with Ferrari paying him so as not to compete with them. .

Apart from this, it is worth noting other situations that have some similarity:

• Ralf Schumacher and Jordan: Kaiser’s brother came to F1 from the Jordanian team, who signed him to a three-year contract (1997, 1998 and 1999). However, the German was not too happy with the decisions made by the Silverstone (now Aston Martin) outfit in 1998, favoring Damon Hill over him. For this reason, after the Belgian GP, ​​Schumacher’s entourage issued a statement assuring that he would no longer race for Jordan and that in 1999 he would do so at Williams. After months of controversy, everything was settled with a $2.4 million payment from Michael Schumacher.
• Ayrton Senna and Toleman: Another case of a young driver who stands out very quickly. In 1984 Ayrton Senna surprised with an unimaginable performance in one of the worst teams. This attracted the attention of Lotus who agreed that in 1985 he would race with them. The problem is that this happened before Peter Warr’s side paid his £100,000 release clause. This led Toleman to punish Senna as he was unable to compete in the 1984 Italian GP, ​​but he eventually joined Lotus the following year.
• Alain Prost and Renault: the French team has not been very adept at managing their talents conventionally. And the clearest example of this happened in 1983 when Alain Prost reached an agreement with McLaren to join them for 1984. Renault could not afford to lose their best asset despite the contract. Because of this, the French team’s reaction was to pay Prost what his next season’s salary would be before this happened, a somewhat strange form of negotiation.