For Alpine, 2022 has been somewhat a year of loss, given that a third high-stake employee of the Enstone-based side has been reportedly sacked.
According to companies house, director of legal affairs Benedicte Mercer has been relieved of her responsibilities, having played a role in the French side losing the highly talented Oscar Piastri to McLaren.
The Piastri saga has played a huge role in the storyline of 2022, with it all having started following an announcement by Sebastian Vettel.
Prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, the four-time World Champion revealed that he would be retiring from the sport at the end of the season, which triggered a heap of changes.
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After the weekend at the Hungaroring, Fernando Alonso announced that he’d be joining the Silverstone-based team in 2023, to the shock of the paddock.
This, therefore, opened up a vacancy at Alpine for 2023, resulting in the side announcing that their reserve driver, 2021 F2 World Champion Oscar Piastri, would be promoted to a full-time seat.
However, the story then took a dramatic twist, as Piastri revealed that he hadn’t agreed to race for Alpine and wouldn’t be doing so either.
Team boss Otmar Szafnauer was furious and insisted that the Aussie was contracted to the team; however, the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board revealed that he had no binding contract with Alpine for 2023, meaning he was allowed to sign for McLaren.
Alpine’s plan originally, was for Piastri to race for Williams for up to two years before switching to the French side, after believing that Alonso was going to sign a contract extension.
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It meant Alpine lost both the most experienced driver and perhaps the highest-anticipated one also, resulting in the French side having egg on their face.
Given that Alpine are based in the UK, they do come under companies house, where they can be found under the name Alpine Racing Limited.
It’s on this that it can be seen that the side have terminated the contract of Mercer, with it having been done on 8th November.