Even before he took himself out of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix in an aggressive swoop on team-mate Pierre Gasly, it had become clear that something had changed in Esteban Ocon’s relationship with Alpine. This is Ocon-Alpine – the sensational winning combination of the 2021 Hungarian GP, with more than a little help from his then team-mate Fernando Alonso…
Ahead of the action getting under way in Monaco, Ocon had only spoken vaguely of how “if you do a good job on track there should be nothing stopping you in the future” in terms of remaining with the team beyond 2024. His lack of encouragement for his employer spoke loudest in the cramped press room. Earlier in 2024, Alpine team insiders had suggested that Ocon’s hollering celebrations at escaping Q1 at the Australian and Japanese races had not gone down well internally.
This all reflects the painful place in which Alpine found itself as the season commenced. After warning, via Gasly, that “we just might need to be a little bit patient” at the February launch of the A524, testing revealed the car to be slow and overweight. What had been clear to Ocon and Gasly in December simulation sessions was playing out in reality.
A week later in Bahrain, Alpine announced that technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer would be departing. At that first round, the Alpine drivers had locked out the last row of the grid. Even braced for a tough start, team principal Bruno Famin nevertheless called that
