How Alpine privately feel about Esteban Ocon claiming Pierre Gasly has an unfair car advantage

Esteban Ocon’s Alpine partnership with Pierre Gasly will soon come to an end. The former is leaving after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to join midfield rivals Haas.

Ocon and Gasly were close friends as children before falling out. Much has been made of the apparent animosity between the two.

They have collided twice – first at the 2023 Australian GP, just three races after Gasly joined, and second in Monaco earlier this year. But aside from those flashpoints, there have been few public signs of destabilising discord.

In fact, after Ocon and Gasly remarkably shared the podium in Sao Paulo earlier this month, they seemed closer than ever. In addition to celebrating together, they carried out a combined interview in the media pen.

Gasly maintained that stunning momentum when he qualified a season-best third for the Las Vegas GP, but a reality check followed. He had to retire from the race with an engine issue, while Ocon slipped from 11th to 17th after a farcical pit-lane drive-through when his mechanics were caught off-guard.

According to The Race, Ocon has felt since the United States GP, when Gasly had the first chance to run a major upgrade package, that his teammate has had an unfair advantage. The cars are now ostensibly equal, but the departing driver thinks otherwise.

Alpine feel Esteban Ocon is blaming the car for his own flaws

Ocon has alleged that Gasly’s car is between half a second and seven-tenths faster. This has prompted the team to ‘thoroughly’ inspect his A524.

They have found no fault, which has led them to conclude that he’s ‘blaming the car’ when he should be ‘looking inwards’. ‘The feeling within the team’ is that he isn’t adapting to rear-end instability as well as Gasly.

This is hurting him in qualifying, but isn’t as big an issue in the race. In fact, Alpine engineers feel that Ocon may have a slight edge over Gasly in that department.

The former Mercedes reserve has already won the Saturday head-to-head, with a 13-8 advantage heading into the last two races. He’s also 11-6 up in the 17 races both have finished.

Martin Brundle’s verdict on ‘monster’ Esteban Ocon will excite the Haas team

Ocon qualified 19th for the Mexico City GP, while his teammate reached Q3. Before the rain in Brazil, he could only manage 16th in Sprint Qualifying as Gasly took an impressive seventh.

One can understand why he’s scratching his head. But with just three points separating the two (Gasly has 26 and Ocon 23), he could still win the championship battle if he can re-establish his confidence in the machinery.

Martin Brundle believes Ocon is a ‘monster’ who has ‘more potential’ than he’s demonstrated thus far. That will excite Haas boss Ayao Komatsu, who will back himself to extract it.

Rookie Jack Doohan, who has been the team’s reserve driver this year, will replace him for 2025. There are already, rumours, however, that they would like to field Franco Colapinto instead, and Ted Kravitz says Doohan isn’t ‘happy’.