Alpine F1 Boss Only Learned Fernando Alonso Signed to Aston From the Press Release

Alpine F1 Team boss Otmar Szafnauer found out that Fernando Alonso was leaving his team at the same time as the rest of the world. Szafnauer, Motorsport reports, read about Alonso's Aston Martin deal in the public press release Aston Martin Racing put out to announce the deal.

“It was the first confirmation I had,” he told Motorsport. “Obviously, when we're in the paddock, there's all sorts of rumors, and I had heard rumors that Aston were interested."

The outlet reports that Szafnauer believed that Alpine was on the precipice of securing a deal with Alonso. The team and the former champion had been deep in negotiations, which the team boss thought were looking good. But following up on the rumors, he says he did question Alonso.