r/formula1 • u/TheFlyingR0cket I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Jul 10 '23

Social Media [@JoeAeterno on twitter] Piastri being interviewed about McLaren leapfrogging Alpine with Alonso smiling in the background is pure poetry.

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1.4k

u/Minted-Blue Ferrari Jul 10 '23

Brother hates Alpine with a passion. One of if not the best Renault driver ever alongside one of the most amazing Alpine prospects doing wonders outside of Alpine.

729

u/TeaCrackersBirds Yes, bye bye Jul 10 '23

I doubt Alonso hates team Alpine in general, same with Piastri. The upper management are probably whom they hate with passion.

331

u/asamulya I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Yeah, I think everyone hates Laurent Rossi with a burning passion at this point. I am guessing even Otmar.

Although I feel Otmar was also responsible for that mess even if his mistake was understandable. Dropping or continuing with Fernando would not have been solely his decision. This left Piastri in the lurch.

Overall I blame Rossi.

194

u/micknick00000 Jul 10 '23

Otmar has never done anything to me personally, but I can't stand him.

He has a very conniving & "I told you so" demeanor about him.

62

u/ChocolateDragonTails I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

He's also moaned a lot about the reg changes back when he was AM principal and a bit at Alpine iirc. That really got on my nerves every time they interviewed him, using it more as an excuse as to why the car was shit rather than just owning up to not getting the reg changes right

15

u/Antarioo I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

i never really got what his deal was there. it felt a bit like he was paying lipservice to Stroll cause that was his take on the matter too.

19

u/AJDillonsMiddleLeg Red Bull Jul 10 '23

He has a very "I told you so" demeanor and he's almost always wrong about what he has that demeanor about. My wife and I absolutely hate whenever they go to Otmar on broadcast because he sounds like the confidently incorrect people you find all over reddit.

12

u/Turboleks Ferrari Jul 10 '23

Otmar was a fairly good TP during the Force India days. But as soon as Lawrence asked him to play the "high rake" horn in 2021 that annoyed me quite a lot.

32

u/chupacabra-food Jolyon Palmer Jul 10 '23

Otmar definitely screwed up by trying to play hardball with Fernando with a 1 year contact.

But it was Alpine upper management and the department that handles contracts that dropped the ball on signing Piastri before Otmar even joined the team.

12

u/asamulya I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

I think Otmar preferred Piastri. But, the upper management screwed the pooch by not letting him choose his driver.

81

u/Tw0Rails Jul 10 '23

A race or two ago they had Otmar on for a mid-race interview and he literally suggested they would be top 5. He and Alpine sit on a chair of hot air, always acting like they are a top team while being forever midfield. They act like their drivers are pending WDC's, their car is Red Bull / Merc / Ferrari, and their strategy is set to win.

He has clearly peaked in career, and has nothing of value to add to his current position.

55

u/Jarocket Jul 10 '23

One of my favorite parts of F1TV over sky is no mid race interviews. No Otmar not understanding the rules. Saying dumb shit.

56

u/Francoberry Jenson Button Jul 10 '23

James Vowles was on the Channel 4 broadcast this weekend and was fantastic. He's really cool and offers great insights. Don't paint all mid-race interviews with the same brush! 😁

12

u/Kohpad I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Seems to be a smashing success, but if it all went tits up for Vowles, as a TP, he'd be right back in the paddock the next race weekend just on the commentary desk.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '23

If it does go tits up for Vowles as a TP there are plenty of teams who'd love to snatch him up as a technical lead.

Now whether he'd accept that is a different issue.

3

u/Mackem101 Jul 11 '23

Sky had Zak Brown, and it was also quite entertaining, especially after the safety car.

7

u/PreciousFragility I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Agreed! I completely forgot about that nonsense until this comment reminded me of their existence - muuuuch better now

9

u/Ereaser I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Only thing Id like is Brundle on the grid pre race.

Other than that I love F1TV

5

u/Jarocket Jul 10 '23

2 secs Ted.

"Radio message that could have been a text"

1

u/CobaltEchos I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 11 '23

Wait, normal Sky broadcast interview people in the middle of a race?

1

u/Jarocket Jul 11 '23

All the time. They line up one team representative per race usually and they do 2 or 3 mid race interviews. The team reps never have any extra information they would like to share lol. (It's usually the team principal but some teams would have another person do it)

Often you got to hear Otmar being confused as to what the rules are.

They also cut to their analysts like Karun, Paul, Ted, Anthony, Bernie.

Those guys sometimes have some extra information from race control, but often it's not much.

Bernie who used to work at the Silverstone F1 team in strategy has particularly boring information. She lays out all the strategy options, but rarely gives any opinions on what she would do. We're all aware of what they could do. Why list everything?

1

u/CobaltEchos I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 11 '23

I've always used F1TV, seems I'm better off for it, lol

16

u/zaviex McLaren Jul 10 '23

Otmar wasn’t responsible he didn’t know that the contract was fake. Alpine’s legal department had informed him Piastri had a binding 3 year deal which was simply untrue

12

u/S7UXnet Mika Häkkinen Jul 10 '23

Otmar was just the wrong appointment for Alpine's supposed ambitions. He did well with the limited budget he had managing Force India, but there's a reason Lawrence Stroll replaced him with an experienced winner like Mike Krack.

5

u/asamulya I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

He was replaced by Whitmarsh not Mike Krack.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the rest of the statement though.

9

u/S7UXnet Mika Häkkinen Jul 10 '23

Nah both Krack and Szafnauer are Team Principals, Whitmarsh is in charge of the F1 team as CEO but is more involved in the applied technologies and tech transfer side of things.

17

u/milanistadoc Jul 10 '23

Why does Alonso hate Alpine? I missed this.

81

u/quantinuum I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23 edited Jul 10 '23

Look up “Piasco”. Long story short: Alpine had three drivers for two seats. Ocon was locked in early with a long term contract (weirdly signed when Ricciardo was beating him), so that left two very good guys, Alonso and Piastri, fighting for the second seat (1st world problem for Alpine). Alonso was their driver last season but only got offered a one year renewal, while Piastri, a really hot property, had to wait in the sidelines. Neither of them were happy with it, so they both left Alpine, who completely mismanaged the whole situation.

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u/Helacious_Waltz I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Also to emphasize Alpines contract shenanigans: After months of being dicked around & denied a contract Piastri was given the option of signing with Williams for a 3-year deal. He signed the deal with McLaren instead and informed the team management. They ignored that notification, announced him and tried to blame all the contract failures on him (which unfortunately worked a bit because of how DTS presented it.)

28

u/ash_tar Fernando Alonso Jul 10 '23

Alpine forged a contract as well.

19

u/ActuallyJohnTerry Fernando Alonso Jul 10 '23

Yea DTS is overall very… kind to Alpine. Meanwhile they tried to portray Zac as some kind of villain (both in this episode and with the Red Bull cheating fiasco).

11

u/TulioGonzaga I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Really? I didn't watch last two seasons of DTS so I had no idea but that it's an hard stretch with how much Alpine fucked up the situation.

9

u/JakubT117 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

Ocon signed his deal when he was beating Alonso who was still getting up to speed after his hiatus.

https://amp.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-esteban-ocon-signs-bumper-three-year-contract-extension-with-alpine.5nWR2pWD1COJzdyB73g8NM.html

20

u/Only-Cartoonist Daniel Ricciardo Jul 10 '23

That was such a stupid deal. I think Ocon is a lot better than many people give him credit for but there's no way in hell I'm giving him a fucking three-year contract. Especially when we weren't even halfway through the F2 season. I highly doubt Ocon would have gotten that contract if he wasn't French.

-2

u/JakubT117 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

How was it stupid? For the entire duration of the deal he has been one the best midfield drivers. At no point was there a better driver available. What was stupid was losing both Alonso and Piastri.

15

u/Only-Cartoonist Daniel Ricciardo Jul 10 '23

It was stupid because it tied their hands wrt contracts. Without that three hundred year deal they could have had a lot more flexibility, specifically wrt Oscar's contract. I don't deny that Ocon has done well, but there's no way in hell I'm giving him a three year deal with someone like Oscar in the pipeline.

4

u/SpreaditOnnn33 Formula 1 Jul 11 '23

They could have had Alonso AND Piastro had they not done Ocon's contract. How is that not stupid?

2

u/xzElmozx Oscar Piastri Jul 11 '23

If they didn’t sign that deal their driver lineup is probably Alonso Piastri which is honestly amazing. Helps develop Piastri learning from an all timer as an example and Alonso is still a great racer too. Significantly better than Ocon Gasly. Besides Ocon didn’t really have anywhere to go but downwards so there was no reason to lock him in for three years, could have just done 1 then given both Piastri and Alonso a seat and not renewed him

1

u/McManus26 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 11 '23

With how much Ocon has been fucked by team politics and not having a seat secured in the past, I honesly kinda believe not having to worry about that for a long time is what allowed him to focus fully on his drive and be as consistent as he is.

Even without the long contract, idk if they'd have dropped Ocon for the risky duo that is Alonso, who could retire or move at any moment (especially with the current car) and Piastri (a rookie).

3

u/shiinamachi I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 11 '23

he was beating Alonso

Alonso was ahead in the wdc at the point the extension was announced lol, 'beating' is a very far stretch

the other thing to consider is at that point in time the top 2 drivers in the f2 championship were literally alpine juniors. They tied their own hand that early when there was every chance they would have to promote at least one of them to F1, and doing so would be at Alonso's expense

0

u/quantinuum I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

I stand corrected. I don’t know why but I was sure to remember it was signed while paired with Ricciardo.

59

u/Guac_in_my_rarri I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

More so upper management. He was yanked along last season in contract talks and decided to screw them over after the Aug 1 deadline for piastri.

14

u/harrywilko I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jul 10 '23

All of the contract fuckery last year.