The FIA seemingly accidentally shared a tweet by Canal Plus Formula 1 journalist Laurent Dupin which appeared to accuse McLaren of dealing in bad faith.
The Woking-based team are set to become embroiled in another legal battle after Oscar Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, reportedly signed an agreement with them for his driver to join their ranks in 2023.
Alpine are keen to get Piastri, who is currently their reserve driver, some time in a Formula 1 seat, and were willing to offer the Australian’s services to McLaren at the start of this year when Daniel Ricciardo tested positive for COVID-19, missing the second pre-season test.
However, the French side appear to have been holding off on securing a loan move for the Formula 2 champion in case he is needed for 2023.
READ: McLaren and Alpine stuck in ‘legal limbo’
This is due to the fact that they were not sure if Fernando Alonso would sign another deal, but the catch 22 Alpine are stuck in is that they were also unsure if they were able to put Piastri into another car.
Subsequently, they were wary of committing to a long-term deal with the double world champion, so both drivers grew impatient, and now neither of them want to be part of the Enstone-based side next season.
Alonso has signed with Aston Martin to replace Sebastian Vettel, which came as a surprise to Alpine after he told them that he had not signed with anyone.
Alpine reacted by promoting Piastri into a full-time race seat next season, but it appears that Piastri has made his own arrangements with McLaren, so cannot commit to Alpine.
But Alpine are convinced that they have a contractual agreement that means that Piastri is obligated to sign with them if asked to, so there could be a legal battle between Alpine and McLaren for his services.
All of this comes after Chip Ganassi became embroiled in a lawsuit with the Chip Ganassi IndyCar team.
They announced a contract extension for the Spaniard, only for him to also take to social media to deny that he has re-signed.
McLaren then announced that they had signed him instead, so there are two different drivers from two different teams that McLaren have signed to their driver programme, and both have led to a dispute.
This is something Dupin pointed out on social media.
“If Piastri signed with McLaren when he had a pre-contract with Alpine, let’s remember that this same McLaren team announced the commitment of Alex Palou, while the Chip Ganassi team already has a contract with him for 2023,” he tweeted.
Someone from the FIA, presumably not realising they had forgotten to switch back to their personal account, retweeted the potentially controversial opinion, leading to a reaction from F1 fans.
READ: Fernando Alonso mocks Alpine amid Oscar Piastri dispute
“Lol, these are the same guys we expected to rectify AD? I’m beginning to thing the FIA was completely complicit in AD fiasco, neigh even planned it,” said one user.
“Someone forgot to switch accounts,” remarked another, with a third replying with “oops.”
What might possibly be one of the strangest summer breaks Formula 1 has ever seen just keeps getting weirder.