The FIA has broken its silence over the Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo driver debacle at McLaren and Alpine. FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem claimed the FIA would solve the issue through their own means instead of teams having to go to court.
He posted: “The FIA’s Driver Contract Recognition Board (CRB) was set up to deal with contract priority issues between drivers and F1 teams. That’s why we rely on their decision to resolve any conflict.”
The CRB was set up to determine the legality of driver contracts and settle disputes between teams. The group is made up of independent lawyers and aims to settle issues within a few days.
The body was set up after Michael Schumacher signed for Benetton despite having agreed to discuss a contract with Jordan for the 1991 season.
READ MORE: Alpine warn McLaren if they opt to replace Ricciardo with Piastri
Szafnauer said he was aware of F1s CRB but warned the drama may need to be settled in court anyway. He suggests Piastri could simply sit out his contract at Alpine and refuse to drive for the team.
In this situation, Alpine said it would look for payouts to reimburse the costs they have invested into the Australian’s career. Szafanuer explained: “Going to the High Court is over 90 per cent certain that’s what we’ll do.
“If the CRB says ‘your licence is only valid at Alpine’, and then he says ‘that’s great but I’m never driving for them, I’ll just sit out a year’, then you’ve got to go to the High Court for compensation. We haven’t sat down with the accountants to figure out everything we’ve spent. We will have to do that if we go to the High Court.”
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