–
Journalist
Passionate about football since a young age, becoming a sports journalist quickly became obvious to Hugo. He would later discover a love for the NBA, before exploring other horizons such as Formula 1 and the NFL.
In the summer of 2023, before the arrival of Pierre Gasly, Alpine saw Fernando Alonso make the decision to leave to join Aston Martin, and Oscar Piastri give his preference to McLaren. Manager of the Spaniard and today executive advisor of the French team, Flavio Briatore tackled the management of Laurent Rossi in this matter.
If he is today the number 1 driver after the departure ofEsteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly was not Alpine's first choice. Initially, in the summer of 2023, the French team hoped to keep Fernando Alonsofinally left for Aston Martin. Alpine wanted to replace it with Oscar Piastrifrom his academy, but the latter preferred to leave to engage with McLaren.
“Fernando wanted to stay because the previous season wasn’t that bad”
« Alpine wanted to sign him for 2023. Discussions were at an advanced stage, but no contract signing was made. Fernando wanted to stay because the previous season wasn't that bad. We wanted to sign the contract in Canada. Then Laurent Rossi suddenly disappeared. We could no longer reach him. Then I started talking to Lawrence Stroll at Aston Martin “, declared Flavio Briatorein comments reported by Nextgen-Auto.
“It surely takes a good dose of incompetence when you lose two drivers like Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri”
Williams even made an offer to secure the services of Fernando Alonso. « We even received an offer from Williams. I told them: 'get your team in order first'. In the end we signed with Aston Martin because we didn't get along well with the management at Alpine. The mistakes were made by management », added Flavio Briatore. The current executive advisor ofAlpine was not kind to the former management of Laurent Rossi : « It surely takes a good dose of incompetence when you lose two drivers like Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri in one summer. »
