Now that the 2022 Formula One season has drawn to an in depth, and the grid is about for the 2023 marketing campaign, drivers and groups are beginning to sit up for the following 12 months on the circuit.
Judging by current feedback, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon just isn’t unhappy to see former teammate Fernando Alonso depart for Aston Martin.
Alonso, the veteran driver and former F1 champion, is transferring to Aston Martin to exchange the retiring Sebastian Vettel. Pierre Gasly was launched from his contract with Red Bull’s sister staff, AlphaTauri, and can slide into the seat vacated by Alonso.
Alonso’s transfer to Aston Martin attracts to an in depth what had been a fractured relationship between the 2 drivers for Alpine this previous season. Ocon and Alonso sparred quite a few occasions on the monitor, usually costing Alpine precious factors of their chase for a fourth-place end within the Constructors’ Championship.
The pair raced onerous in opposition to one another early within the season, on the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which can have value them an opportunity to overhaul Mercedes’ George Russell for fifth place. There was one other dust-up on the monitor on the Hungarian Grand Prix — the morning Alonso knowledgeable the staff of his transfer to Aston Martin for the 2023 season — that noticed Alonso blast his teammate over the radio. As Ocon and Alonso tangled early within the race, Alonso radioed in “[n]ever in my life have I seen a defense like Esteban’s today. Never.”
The Alpine duo completed in eighth and ninth after that race, with Alonso forward of Ocon, after a one-stop technique that noticed each drivers end a lap down. After the race, Ocon downplayed the incident, calling their tangle on the monitor “racing.”
Things maybe reached their boiling level in Brazil, the place the pair got here into contact in the course of the opening lap of Saturday’s dash race. Ocon squeezed Alonso off the monitor in Turn 4, and each automobiles acquired harm. Alonso finally completed fifteenth, and Ocon positioned 18th, however Alonso was penalized for the incident after the race, as he was judged to be at fault for the contact.
Their habits caught the ire of Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, who blasted the duo after the dash race:
We are extraordinarily disillusioned with the Sprint qualifying end result, which has put us in a worse place on the grid for the primary race. Frankly, each Esteban and Fernando should do a greater job to go with the improbable efforts of everybody within the staff by avoiding on-track incidents and compromising all the staff’s efficiency.
Both drivers have let the staff down. I anticipate extra from them within the race the place we should do every little thing we are able to to get better some factors from the weekend for the Championship.
We are in a really tight and aggressive championship struggle for fourth place within the Constructors’ Championship; an goal for which over 1,000 workers are tirelessly working and striving in the direction of.
We goal to make sure we go to Abu Dhabi subsequent weekend able the place we are able to attain our season objectives. Sunday is a brand new day.
After the race, Alonso made his emotions on the occasion, and his relationship with Ocon, clear. Asked if he had spoken along with his teammate, Alonso replied “No, not really – I don’t need to. One more race and it’s over, finally.”
While Ocon maintained quiet in the course of the season, the French driver lastly shared his ideas on the connection this week. In an interview with French outlet Ouest-France, Ocon lastly opened up in regards to the relationship, criticizing Alonso’s public feedback. “Of course, I was disappointed by his comments in the press and not internally,” Ocon stated to Ouest-France. “We didn’t have any discussions about any of that. I will keep the respect I have for him.”
Ocon additionally unloaded on the workload that he endured whereas paired with Alonso: “It’s good that he’s going to Aston Martin and that we’re going our separate ways. Honestly, the work was 98% on my back and 2% on his. I was overworked. I did all the development on the simulator, the marketing trips.”
Alonso is infamous for not utilizing the simulator to help his staff. Back in 2014 Felipe Massa, after transferring from Ferrari to Williams, criticized Alonso for not placing in any time within the simulator the prior season when each have been with Ferrari. “Last year I worked on the development of the car, and in the simulator I was practically the only driver, because Alonso wasn’t there.”
As for Ocon, he maintains his respect for Alonso, however admitted that he’s glad the 2 are parting. “I still respect him, but it is good that he is going to Aston Martin and that we each go our way.”
However, there’s a probability that the 12 months forward sees extra of the identical for Alpine’s drivers. Ocon and Gasly grew up in half-hour aside in Normandy, and the 2 26-year-olds have been racing collectively for 20 years, beginning out collectively in karting. The two skilled collectively, however finally that drew to an in depth when onerous racing on the monitor induced friction between the 2.
Gasly recalled their shared previous in a 2018 episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast: “Just to see the way we grew up and where we are now, it’s just fantastic. So I think we really respect each other as a driver, but unfortunately there is not the feeling that we had in the past, which was much more friendly.”
Still, Gasly hopes the 2 can renew what was a fantastic relationship. “It’s an opportunity for both of us to get back to a similar relationship that we had in the past,” Gasly stated in an interview with F1.com after the transfer was introduced. “What was the probability that two six-year-old kids from Normandy, France, living 20 minutes from each other, would end up 20 years later as team-mates in a French team? I think that is incredible and a very special story.”
After the announcement, Ocon additionally struck a conciliatory tone. “Now we are team-mates in a team from Normandy and we are both from Normandy, so I think we can write a great story together.”
Alpine, and its supporters, are hoping that’s the case.