We reach the midway point of our annual review of how all ten F1 teams fared in 2023, with a look at Alpine and drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
A season undermined by a mid-season storm
The team picture
- Constructors standing: P6, 120 points
Given their fractious history, many people expected Alpine's driver pairing of 'frenemies' Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly to be the most combustible on this year's grid. Instead the fireworks came from behind the scenes when parent company Renault abruptly fired team principal Otmar Szafnauer and racing director Alan Permane one race before the summer break, just weeks after CEO Laurent Rossi had also been moved sideways, effectively beheading the management team at Enstone.
Bruno Famin came in as interim team principal which seems odd when you would have expected him to be focused on his work improving the team's underpowered engine. All of this turmoil has obviously not had a positive impact on the F1 team, which has fallen from P4 and 173 points last season to sixth in this year's standings on a reduced share of 120 points. The second half of the season following the management bloodbath was little better than it had been at the start of the year, but it could have been mush worse for Alpine. At the same time it also needs to do much better in 2024.
The driver line-up
- Pierre Gasly: P11, 62 points
- Esteban Ocon: P12, 58 points
The Alpine driver line-up of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly is the best-matched on this year's grid, with very little to divide the two Frenchmen. Given his greater experience with how things run at Enstone you'd have expected Ocon to come out on top compared to new arrival Gasly, but that didn't prove to be the case. A season-best result of third place in Monaco put Ocon seven points ahead of his compatriot, but Gasly responded with a podium of his own in the Netherlands to regain the upper hand by a single point. He extended his lead with good results in Singapore and the United States. Ocon nearly caught up with him in Las Vegas where he was P4, but he was unable to find the final four points he needed in the season finale.
Perhaps its only fair that Gasly came out on top as he led Ocon 14-8 in terms of qualifying; but Ocon led 10-9 in race results, with both drivers retiring in Australia, Britain and Hungary. Gasly had the advantage in sprint races, finishing 5-1 ahead of Ocon, including a podium in the Belgium sprint race despite all the behind-the-scenes drama taking place at management level just before the summer break . Overall it's hard to split the duo, and far from damaging rows and arguments it feels like the Gasly/Ocon pairing is proving to be the best thing that Enstone has going for it at the moment.
How 2024 is looking for Alpine
Renault CEO Luca de Meo's midsummer temper tantrum leaves us concerned for the team's future. Whatever has been going on since the departure of Szafnauer and Permane (as well as Pat Fry leaving to join Williams) has been behind the scenes, leaving Famin as the brave but unconvincing public face of the operation. But how long will the 'interim' principal stay in place? What's happening to the team's power unit development? What's the team's strategy to replace it's 100 race masterplan? It all seems to have gone cold, while de Meo appears to have lost interest and moved on to other things until the next time he decides to throw his toys out of the pram.
Like Sauber and to a certain extent Haas, the team seems to be on standby awaiting long-term developments. Perhaps it's holding out for the 2026 engine regulations to come into effect. But that means it will be a long two seasons of idling at Enstone, and the lower Alpine fall in the standings the more thunderbolts will be hurled from Boulogne-Billancourt making things even more difficult. It feels like a vicious cycle that needs something to jolt it out of the downward spiral before its too late.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
