McLaren boss Zak Brown has labelled Alpine counterpart Otmar Szafnauer as “looking a little silly” after the Oscar Piastri saga.
The Australian driver will race for the British marque in 2023 after they successfully secured his services from Alpine, who put up a fight having announced him as Fernando Alonso’s replacement.
Reports suggest key paperwork to keep Piastri was not actually signed by the 21-year-old as Formula One’s Contract Recognition Board sided with McLaren in a recent meeting over the dispute.
“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,” Brown told NBC Sports.
“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.
“Before the CRB ruling, they didn’t know what they didn’t know and we kept our mouths shut deliberately. Now that ruling has come out and some of the detail, I think it’s clear what happened there.
“So we recognised there was a lot of noise, but we knew the truth would come out eventually and we could ride it out, as opposed to giving a running commentary.”
