F1 news: Alpine prepared for High Court battle over Oscar Piastri feud in quest for compensation

Alpine have vowed to go to the High Court as they seek compensation for Oscar Piastri’s decision not to race for the Formula One team in 2023.

A summer-break saga has broken out in F1 after the French marque attempted to trigger a contract clause to race with the Australian next season following Fernando Alonso’s move to Aston Martin.

However, Piastri, 21, is thought to have agreed a move to rivals McLaren instead. That sparked a confusing day of announcements as he publicly refuted Alpine’s claim to his services hours after their initial statement.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer has since criticised the driver for a lack of loyalty and is preparing a compensation claim amid their contractual dispute, which he took to F1’s Contract Recognition Board (CRB) last week.

Should that route fail, Szafnauer is prepared to take the matter further.

“Going to the High Court is over 90 per cent certain that's what we'll do,” he told Reuters.

“If the CRB says, ‘Your licence is only valid at Alpine’, and then [Piastri] 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.”