Les bleus on the rise

The team picture

• Constructors standing: P4, 173 points

Alpine can pat themselves on the back after successfully displacing McLaren from the 'best of the rest' spot in the final constructors championship. Last year their rivals ended the season with a 120 point advantage over them, but this year Alpine turned that around and finished 14 points ahead to clinch fourth in the standings.

It could have been even better if not for chronic reliability issues, particularly on Fernando Alonso's car during the campaign. There were clearly rising internal tensions at Enstone, which erupted after the Hungarian Grand Prix when Alonso announced that he was off to Aston Martin in 2023 leaving unsuspecting new team principal Otmar Szafnauer dumbfounded.

The team's attempt to announce Oscar Piastri as Alonso's replacement was pure amateur hour when it emerged that Alpine hadn't done the legal paperwork to nail down the Australian's contract. Being so publicly rejected by a rookie would have bruised a lot of egos in the Alpine management team, but they picked up the pieces and managed to finish the job in hand despite growing friction between Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

The driver line-up

• Esteban Ocon: P8, 92 points
• Fernando Alonso: P9, 81 points

This feels like one of the few cases this season where the raw points tally doesn't give an accurate picture of the situation. That's not to underestimate Esteban Ocon, more a reflection that Fernando Alonso had such a strong season but came away poorly rewarded for his efforts. It's down to six DNFs for the Spaniard compared to just two for Ocon - and that doesn't take into account the other races that were were affected by engine penalties for Alonso.

Alonso actually out-qualified Ocon by 12 to ten across the season, with a best grid position of second in Canada compared to Ocon's fifth place start in Japan. When it came to race form, Ocon was ahead in 12 races compared to nine for Alonso who scored points in all but two of the races he actually finished in 2022. In general it was pretty close between the pair: Ocon's best finish was fourth in Japan, while Alonso was fifth in Britain, Belgium and Brazil.

It's hard to deny that Alonso was the stronger but less fortunate driver in 2022, and easy to see why he grew disenchanted with Alpine - especially when they started hedging on a contract extension for daring to suggest that he might be past his prime.

How 2023 is looking for Alpine F1

With Fernando Alonso leaving the squad, how do things look for Alpine in 2023? They still have the very capable Esteban Ocon behind the wheel, and next year he will be joined by his compatriot Pierre Gasly who is proven talent (and race winner) despite a disappointing final year with AlphaTauri. The question is whether they can work well together, the former childhood friends having fallen out in recent times.

Hopefully Otmar Szafnauer will have his feet firmly under the table in 2023 and be fully in control of the team. That's not easy within the very formal management structure of Renault, which rejected Frédéric Vasseur when he spent a year in charge of the squad in 2016.

Such details could determine whether Alpine holds on to P4 in the constructors standings next year, or get overtaken by a resurgent McLaren. But their rivals have similar problems of their own (change at the top, a new driver) so this could again prove to be one of the closest and most absorbing battles on the grid in 2023.

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