For all of Alpine's confidence about the case and its swipes at Piastri's apparent lack of integrity, the team has to face the truth: its errors have caused it to lose a two-time F1 world champion and one of the brightest junior talents for many years in the space of just four weeks.
Fernando Alonso's shock switch to Aston Martin for 2023 caught everybody out, including Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer, who only found out when the press release was issued despite claiming to have been part of the negotiations (something Alonso denies).
