The Alpine team have had a roller coaster of a season which began with an overweight car. They were joint bottom in the constructors’ championship until round ten in Spain where Esteban Ocon came home in P10 for the team’s first a point of the year.

Two races previously Ocon was the villain of the piece as in Monaco he ran into the back of his team mate as the race was red flagged on lap one. A furious team boss Bruno Famin fumed live on French TV Canal+, “This kind of incident is sad,” he said. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to see. Esteban’s attack was completely out of circumstance… We will draw the consequences. We’re going to decide whilst it’s still raw.”

Social media went viral with pictures of Ocon walking away from the circuit dressed in civvies before the race was even restarted. Just over a week later a joint announcement came from Esteban and Alpine that he would be leaving the team at the end of the year.

 

 

 

Alpine pair evenly matched

The pair were two of the most evenly matched drivers on the grid as the head to head shows it was Ocon who won the intra team qualifying battle 13-10. Yet the team continued to struggle in the bottom three, with points few and far between for the drivers then came the rains in Interlagos and the season was transformed.

In monsoon like conditions it was Max Verstappen who was the class of the field driving from his start in P17 to win the race, at times almost two seconds a lap quicker than the field. Yet the Alpine pair proved also to be masters in the soaking wet conditions coming home behind the Red Bull world champion with Ocon in second and Pierre Gasly in third.

This revolutionised the French squads season as the team’s haul of points for the weekend came in at 35. They were catapulted into the battle for sixth in the F1 constructors’ with Haas and V-CARB and need to outscore the American owned outfit by six points in a three way fight worth some $30m.

Come the round in Qatar, the drivers were separated by just three points, with Gasly ahead, but a poor qualifying from Ocon saw him start from the back of the grid. A first turn incident with Nico Hulkenberg meant Esteban was out of the race and as it transpired this was the end of his Alpine career.

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Ocon ditched just days before Grand Prix

Ocon’s five year tenure with the French owned F1 team came to an ignominious end as the team announced in the run up to Abu Dhabi he would be replaced by Jack Doohan. Media reports tended towards the reasoning being that Esteban wanted to test for Haas in the post season test on Tuesday, and so a deal had been agreed with the team’s Executive consultant Flavio Briatore.

“The team would like to thank Esteban for his time at the team and he will remain part of the team’s history achieving the first win for Alpine in Formula 1. We wish Esteban the best for the future,” said Alpine in rather curt statement.

Having committed to rookie Jack Doohan next year it would seem reasonable to give him a first full weekend in the car in the end of season finale. Yet with so much at stake theres more to this than meets the eye according to Nico Rosberg.

Ocon had a poor weekend in Las Vegas after the glory of Brazil and his sessions in Qatar saw him way off the pace of his team mate. Nico Rosberg believes the recent “sudden” dominance that Gasly enjoyed over his team mate in recent weeks was the reason behind his surprise announcement that Doohan wold replace him in Abu Dhabi.

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Rosberg explains Alpine’s reason

“What on earth is going on there?” Rosberg said on Sky. “Suddenly they’ve put so much performance onto the car for the first time in a long, long time because they’ve just been struggling all along.

“And then, suddenly, Pierre Gasly also massively outperforming Esteban Ocon – which is the reason they’ve taken him out of the car this weekend.”

In Mexico Gasly claimed P10 and in Sao Paulo he also picked up a couple of points in the Sprint as well as his P3 in the GP. Apart from his second place in Brazil Esteban has not scored since before the summer break in Belgium and the current tally is 36-23 in Piere’s favour.

Ocon was clearly expecting to drive in Abu Dhabi before becoming a Haas driver in the season’s post test. His response to the news he was being replaced by the young Australian reflects his expectations as the winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix penned a heart warming message on social media.

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Ocon was expecting to race

“First of all, I want to thank the mechanics and engineers of all functions on the track to Enstone and Viry-Chatillon, who have raced alongside me in the last five seasons,” Ocon wrote. “We’ve shared so much together, and I’m proud to call many of you my friends.”

“To the hundreds of teammates in Enstone and Viry, I apologise for not being able to come and see you in person and say a proper goodbye. As you know, the plan was to run one last time this weekend and say goodbye next week.

“[I] was looking forward to doing these two things. This is not how I wanted things to end.”

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Doohan slow start to F1 career

Doohan has had a steady start to his Alpine career in Abu Dhabi, he was second last on the time sheets for both Friday sessions, improving to sixteenth in Saturday morning practice.

He was out and plumb last in the first qualifying session although with penalties incoming for Charles Leclerc and the Williams duo, he is likely to be promoted three places forward but a chance of points looks extremely unlikely for the new Alpine driver.

Meanwhile Pierre Gasly had an excellent weekend and put his Alpine on the third row of the grid. He is sandwiched between Max Verstappen ahead and with George Russell behind. The battle at the start will in particular attract the attention of those watching given he war of words they’ve engaged in off track this weekend.

Russell snubs Verstappen olive branch

 

 

 

Pirelli data showing dramatic gains by McLaren

The new breed of Formula One cars introduced in 2022 have begun to approach a point of convergence as Red Bull Racing hit a development ceiling following their uber dominant 2023. The world champions started the year well winning seven of the first ten races before the fateful Austrian Grand Prix.

There McLaren looked to have the quicker car during the weekend but Max Verstappen found a way to lead Norris in the race and defended as though his life depended upon it. Their coming together was inevitable and it was Lando who was forced to retire his car, while Verstappen limped home in fifth place.

This was the start of a remarkable run of ten Grand Prix weekends which would see six drivers on top of the podium and none of them in Red Bull colours. The in season progress the teams have made are quite remarkable and the latest data from Pirelli tells its own tale… READ MORE ON THIS STORY