Alpine boss hoping Ocon and Gasly 'rekindle' past friendship
Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer hopes Esteban Ocon and his future teammate Pierre Gasly will rekindle their friendship...
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Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer hopes Esteban Ocon and his future teammate Pierre Gasly will rekindle their friendship when they join forces next season to embrace the French outfit's big F1 ambitions.
Ocon and Gasly both grew up in Normandy and became childhood friends as they cut their baby teeth in the competitive ranks of karting.
But past differences, on and beyond the track, led to there being no love lost between the two drivers although their relationship became cordial in Formula 1.
Both drivers were the recipient of special circumstances that saw them pocket a Grand Prix win – at Monza in 2020 for Gasly and in Hungary in 2021 for Ocon.
They will form in 2023 the first full-time all-French line-up in Formula 1 since Alain Prost and René Arnoux raced together at Renault in 1982.
But looking towards the future, Szafnauer is confident that Alpine's future line-up will live up to the team's big expectations.
"We made an informed decision and that means talking to the entire team – including Esteban beforehand – to make sure that if we did make a decision it’s a team sport and we have to be able to work together and optimise," said Szafnauer, speaking in Suzuka on Saturday.
"Esteban was very supportive, Pierre as well. They’re professionals and they have no issue working together.
"Hopefully the friendship will rekindle, they were friends at one point, but from a professional perspective they’re both very happy to work with each other.
"They've known each other for a very long time, and they've raced together. They're about equally experienced, they're both very fast, both ambitious, so that I think they'll work well together."
We were just two little kids from Normandy with an impossible dream. Welcome to the Alpine family Pierrot, let’s make our team and our country proud
On était juste deux gosses en Normandie avec un rêve qui semblait impossible.
Bienvenue dans l’équipe Pierrot. @AlpineF1Team pic.twitter.com/3hGFDDNjKY
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) October 8, 2022
Alpine's first plan was to retain Fernando Alonso alongside Ocon for 2023, but when the Spaniard unexpectedly decided to jump ship and join Aston Martin, the Enstone squad opted to promote Oscar Piastri to the Spaniard's race seat.
However, the highly-rated young Aussie had already switched his allegiance to McLaren.
Gasly's transfer from AlphaTauri to Alpine was initially contingent on the Faenza-based squad securing the services of Colton Herta.
But when that opportunity fell through, Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko courted and signed up Nyck de Vries, which paved the way for Gasly's move to Alpine.
Szafnauer underscored how Gasly's profile fits the bill for Alpine.
"As everyone knows, we had a seat available after or around the summer break," explained the American. "And then we started looking around as to who would be a best fit, and we had some criteria to work to.
"The three things we wanted were naturally speed, a fast driver, one with experience, and also youth at the same time. And adding all three things up there aren't many people that have all that and Pierre definitely does.
"We thought he was a great fit for us. So we put him on our shortlist, and then went about getting it done.
"When it looked like Oscar wasn't 100 percent certain with some of the contractual issues that we had then we started working on a shortlist of who else it could be, and Pierre was on it.
"And one of the reasons was that he was going to become available and in ’24, not for ’23. And then it became quite evident to us that, like I said before, he's got youth, experience and speed, and that's difficult to say for a lot of drivers that are still within F1, even.
"Even the other two that you mentioned [Alonso and Piastri] didn't have those things. So we're fortunate to secure Pierre, and look forward to working with him."
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