Zak Brown said Alpine look "a little silly" after losing Oscar Piastri to McLaren following a high-profile legal battle.
Alpine wanted to promote the 2021 F2 champion to a race seat after Fernando Alonso announced he would be leaving for Aston Martin. But Piastri had already signed a deal with McLaren, which the Contracts Recognition Board later ruled was valid.
Losing that battle may have come as a surprise to the Enstone team, who had been very vocal about how "confident" they were over the whole situation. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer had also accused Piastri of a lack of integrity – an opinion later repeated by the team's chief executive Laurent Rossi.
McLaren, meanwhile, had been mostly silent on the subject until the CRB's verdict was given out, after which they immediately announced Piastri would drive for them next year. Now happy to comment on the situation, chief executive Brown pointed out that his counterparts at Alpine have been left with egg on their faces.
"I think before people saw the CRB ruling, they didn't know what they didn't know, and we kept our mouths shut deliberately," he told NBC Sports. "Now that ruling has come out in good detail, it's clear what happened there.
"We recognized there was a lot of noise, but we knew the truth would come out eventually, and we just need to kind of ride it out as opposed to giving a running commentary. So at the time, not oblivious to the noise and some of the direct message notes that I got from fans.
"It was very noisy, but we really haven't commented on anything. I think it was better just to let things play out and give a little bit of colour afterward.
"I think if you look at all of the comments by Otmar, he was giving a little play by play of the CRB and how confident they were, and now I think he looks a little silly. I think that's why it's best to keep your mouth shut, and we can talk about it after the fact when there's something concrete to say."
Piastri signed his deal with McLaren on July 4, a month before the saga kicked off when Alpine tried to promote him. The driver insists he had made the team aware that he was planning to leave, but Rossi still said last week: "We never knew for a fact he had signed [for McLaren]. He never told us."
