Enstone then gears up to sue its former junior driver – a situation described as “‘****in’ crazy’” by Brown – to try and reclaim some of the funds lost to all the F1 testing it gave Piastri in preparation for an Enstone race seat – cue crunch meetings between the two principals in the McLaren motorhome over the Belgian GP weekend.
“I just wanted to say with all this Oscar stuff…although we lost Oscar, we think we have a good case in UK law,” Szafnauer tells Brown, with Piastri’s defence being he had no obligation to sign a race contract in spite of the preparation proffered.
“He shouldn’t have taken anything if he thought he didn’t have a contract [i.e. an obligation to drive for Alpine]. We’ve done the math, the value of that is $5m”
“If you know [i.e. think] there’s no contract and you take all the offerings that the other party is giving but you don’t give back what you’re supposed to give, then you need to give all the money back.”
Preparing Piastri for an F1 seat — including this 2021 test — cost $5m, claimed Alpine
Clive Rose/Getty Images
“The downside is you going after him would be a PR disaster,” replies Brown, laying down his marker. “Is the five million worth it?
“Without getting into the details of my Oscar contract, I may have some support I have to give him, so his problems become my problems.”
