Alpine are a team on the up, or at least that is the chatter coming out of the Enstone-based outfit. Before the season began, the French team bolstered their ranks with the addition of Pierre Gasly. On paper, the all-French lineup of Gasly and Esteban Ocon seems like one of the strongest driver pairings on the entire Formula 1 grid. But one has to only look at the fractious past the two have shared to realize that trouble isn’t that far away when these two are paired together.

And this is exactly what was witnessed at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. In the dying embers of the race, with both the cars in very good points-scoring positions, the two teammates came together. This resulted in a double DNF and a supposedly whopping repair bill. In the era of the cost cap, has this incident handicapped the team in addition to a possible rift between the two garages?

Assessment of Gasly-Ocon crash revealed by Alpine

With the advent of the cost-cap regulations, teams have to be very careful as any huge repair bill can be a detriment to their plans to invest in the development of the car. However, according to team principal, Otmar Szafnauer the team is in the clear as of now.

He was quoted by RacingNews365.com as saying, “From the point of view of the budget limit, I think we’re going to be fine , from everything I know. I don’t think there is any concern. It will be expensive, it probably would have been a lot less expensive if it hadn’t happened.” [translated via Google Translate]

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In the aftermath of the crash, things seem to be back to normal at Alpine. But still, Szafnauer deemed it appropriate to absolve both his drivers.

Otmar Szafnauer dishes behind the scenes details of the Gasly-Ocon crash

Given the past hostilities shared by both drivers, the incident that occurred at the race was imminent. That being said, Szafnauer was more than forthcoming in revealing the exact details of what ensued between the duo in the immediate aftermath of Alpine’s disastrous Australian GP weekend.

He told Formula1.com, “Well, they each apologized, so they each thought they played a role in it. It was just chaos out there; had Pierre not gone wide in Turn 1 – but a lot of people did – then I think he would have been further up the road.”

“Esteban at the same time just followed [Yuki] Tsunoda through on the racing line and Pierre didn’t see him and came over to the racing line and just hit him. Which is… unfortunate.”

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Are things about to get out of hand at Alpine?