We are only halfway through the 2024 season and Alpine has already seen a lot of turbulence. The French team found its first heartbreak when its rival, McLaren, improved astonishingly to give Red Bull a fight for the World Constructors’ Championship. The second heartbreak came when Alpine dropped to the third-last spot on the points table because of a lack of performance from its two recruits – Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Thirdly, just before the summer break started, the Enstone outfit’s Team Principal Bruno Famin announced his exit.

Now that ex-Hitech boss Oliver Oakes has taken up the reigns of Alpine, the team needs to adapt to the new leadership. Meanwhile, Ocon is also leaving by the end of 2024, so the French outfit needs to find a new recruit too. In the middle of all this, there is the rivalry between Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon which is infamous amongst all F1 fans. However, Bruno Famin has revealed some details about the dynamics between the two Frenchmen that show things are not as bad and ugly as they might seem.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are childhood friends who raced together in Normandy, France. However, things changed when they went head-to-head at the Bridgestone Cup finale in 2009. It was Gasly who initiated an attack on Ocon’s position in the race that resulted in the two of them colliding with each other. Ever since then, Esteban Ocon has never had nice things to say about the ex-AlphaTauri racer who signed up as his teammate in 2023. However, now that they are in the same squad, their relationship has received even more scrutiny.

According to Bruno Famin, the rivalry between Gasly and Ocon is nothing out of the usual. He said on the F1 Nation podcast, “Everybody knows the main competitor of a driver is his teammate and there was a lot of noise about Ocon versus Gasly but you know I’m sure that in all the teams it’s the same kind of situation. Look, on the track, what’s happened–Russell versus Hamilton [of Mercedes], Leclerc versus Sainz [of Ferrari].” He also said, “I think they are all racers, they are all fighters, they want to beat their teammate. This is just normal.”

Thus, the former Alpine boss has declared that Ocon and Gasly are on formal terms now. But what did Pierre say about Esteban helping him improve his performance a month ago?

Pierre Gasly once tried out Esteban Ocon’s car to improve his score

The competition in 2024 has hit Pierre Gasly hard, and as a result, Alpine has suffered too. Till now, the Frenchman has only gathered 6 points. But the situation was worse for him when he walked into the British GP. So, he decided to take pointers from his teammate and improve his performance. Speaking on this, the 28-year-old said, “There were a couple of things that didn’t make sense with the balance of [my] car at the beginning of the year. So, I asked to try the set-up used on the other side of the pit [Ocon’s] and we immediately went faster.”

Even though Pierre Gasly trying out Esteban Ocon’s car has helped him improve, the Frenchman ran out of luck at last weekend’s Belgian GP. He could not find a points finish for him while Ocon soared to the eighth spot in the grid. Thus, Alpine wrapped up yet another unsuccessful outing where only one of its recruits could score points.

While Bruno Famin has cleared the air about the relationship between Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, it won’t help matters on their team. Ocon is leaving Alpine for Haas and now, a new racer has to pair up with Gasly. Who do you think should be able to improve the French team’s current condition? Should it be Mick Schumacher from Alpine’s WEC team or the F1 reserve driver Jack Doohan? Let us know in the comments below.