Alonso and Ocon can benefit from each other at Alpine – Brivio

2021 F1 season

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Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon will make a “great combination” as team mates at Alpine this year, racing director Davide Brivio believes.

After fracturing his jaw in a cycling accident last month, Alonso made his return to action in testing last week. Brivio said his driver is in “great shape, first of all, from a physical point of view” and eager to return to racing.

The two-times world champion is fully motivated for his return to Formula 1 and is spurring the Alpine team to improve, Brivio added.

“[He has] strong motivation, he’s really pushing and I think it’s very positive for the team to have this type of driver that tends to stimulate everybody, push everybody to the maximum because he is [also] doing so.

“The fact that he’s coming back in the most demanding class of motorsport, it shows also how strongly he is motivated and how is his desire to be back in action and to do great.”

Alonso is returning to F1 following a two-year absence. Team mate Esteban Ocon made his comeback to the sport last year after spending one season without a race seat.

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“I think it’s a very interesting combination,” said Brivio. “Both had a stop and both came back.”

Ocon made steady improvements throughout last season, which culminated in his first podium finish in the Sakhir Grand Prix.

“What we are seeing now is something very interesting because he is continuing this coming back period, so for sure he will take advantage of having stayed one year with the team, one year with the same car,” said Brivio. “So now it’s time where we can see, I think, his potential and what he can do.”

He said the team’s mix of youth and experience in its driver line-up is a “great combination” which will be mutually beneficial for the pair.

“Fernando will be important for Esteban in order to show also how he can work maybe in a different way with an experienced driver. And at the same time Esteban can help Fernando because he’s becoming more and more competitive and I think he will be very competitive this year.

“So I like this combination and I’m really looking forward to see both in action. I think Fernando can give us good results and Esteban for sure will also follow.”

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29 comments on “Alonso and Ocon can benefit from each other at Alpine – Brivio”

  1. Should be a fun battle between them.. Neither teammate plays well in an inter team battle.

    1. @todfod I hear you on that, but I always question how much teammates need to battle when they aren’t fighting for wins and podiums. Oh sure of course there is always some level of rivalry and no one driver wants to be outdone by their teammate no matter the level of car, but still, I think they would be best off developing and gelling as a team together, and particularly developing the pu, as the chassis next year will be night and day different to this year anyway. I suppose the easiest thing for the team would be if FA just blows Ocon’s doors off and there is no need for them to contact each other out of pride for positions and a small number of points. But if they’re close, there is still no need for either of them to do other than just be happy for the other to have their best day possible…at least theoretically and on paper lol. As you say it is going to be fun to watch, but presuming FA will have the upper hand in talent and experience, and they will both be limited by the car, I see no point whatsoever in EO getting in FA’s face…his hurty face the is…sorry FA, couldn’t resist.

      1. @robbie
        Honestly, even fighting to scrape in to the points can get intense. We saw a fierce rivalry between Ocon and Perez when they weren’t fighting for podiums. It’s just about stamping the authority on which driver gets preference on strategy and team’s focus… Basically who’s the rooster in the coop. Sure, there are drivers that handle the situation maturely (Norris / Sainz type).. But neither of these drivers seem to take getting beaten by their teammate as casually… Which is what will make it fun to watch.

        1. @todfod For sure which is why I said no driver wants to be outdone by his teammate. But there is a time and a place. Taking EO and SP as you have referenced, there you had two unproven drivers in terms of F1 wins and podiums, on a sub top three team, fighting for the pride of it. I can see that. I do though debate whether either one of them was actually fighting for rooster status and strategy preference though, for to me that would be up to the team as to whether or not they would want to grant their drivers those designations, even depending on how each race unfolds, and as I say imho I don’t see the point of a team doing that when it is not about having to manage their drivers and the rivalry because it is for wins and podiums. They weren’t, so it was imho their (the drivers) first and foremost duty to try to help advance the team. On that team, rooster status and favouring one driver over another, would not have been the team’s priority whatsoever. So why shade one driver when you need both drivers working together and having every opportunity to equally do their best when that is what is best in bringing the team up? And I think that is why EO and SP would have been reprimanded within the team, not congratulated, for some of their rivalrous actions.

          Still though, for sure fun to watch, but I don’t advise EO treat FA like he is SP. There’s a time and a place.

  2. Brivio isn’t that the cheater who is banned for life? (even a court overturned that he is still not welcome)

    1. That would be (Flavio) Briatore I guess @McLeod.

      1. Well connect the names and you have brivio :)

      2. Ah at my age you get confused And i was never good with names!

        Just ignore my comment then.

        1. And he, Briatore, isn’t banned for life, that’s only a myth.

          1. Or is it..

    2. wow (face palm emoticon)

  3. Still not sure that Ocon has improved enough to be at the level were (I hope) Alonso is, @todfod.

    I guess that Brivio is doing the initial team interviews as Budkowski would be a bit of a jawbreaker ;)

  4. I’m expecting Alonso to eat Ocon alive, and it’ll be a total meltdown from the word go. Ocon isn’t that kind team player, and we know Alonso is just equally fierce…

    If they start battling for good points regularly, it’s going to be as interesting as Ocon’s tenure at Force India with Perez.

    1. Yeah, this might be quite an interesting battle to follow @fer-no65

  5. As much as I will remember Ocon as a mature person, it will never be easy.

    1. Ocon mature?
      You are joking I hope?

      1. Although he complains over the radio and can’t chill sometimes, he never shoved anyone.

        1. Worse, he acted very immature when confronted with a driver who lost his win by his fault.

          1. So he acted like he had no regrets at that infamous moment? Well, yeah, if I was him I would rush up to him and apologise.

    2. His comments on the radio make him the most immature by far.

      There’s no driver on the grid that would want to publicly explain a poor performance by questioning the team tactics more publicly than Ocon.

      1. @todfod Interesting you’re saying that about maturity. Not to dredge up the debate at all, I harken back to the incident when Ocon as a back marker took out Max and cost him a win. As I say, without opening up a debate, let’s say I concede, in spite of my own opinion on it and the factual penalty he got for his actions, that Ocon was within his rights to fight Max as hard as he did under that circumstance, and let’s say it was Max that didn’t leave Ocon the space. One would still understand Max’s fury given what it cost him, and given that his opinion of the matter would have been swayed by Ocon being penalized by the FIA. Max had every reason in the heat of the moment especially, knowing he had FIA’s support visa vie Ocon’s penalty, to believe he was robbed. Of course he wasn’t just going to say nothing and sit on his hands after the race, and of course he was going to confront EO after the race.

        My point being, and again being very careful here and politically correct, and I don’t condone Max shoving EO which one can argue also showed some immaturity, surely we can all agree EO had an opportunity to be more sympathic for what that cost Max, and more understanding of why Max would be so upset, even if EO thought Max was in the wrong? Is it ever ok to go inside a driver in a risky and surprising way, and even if the lead driver didn’t leave room, laugh about it when it cost them the win? Surely he could/should have understood the situation and diffused it is my main point and has been all along. Rather, he took the immature route to sneer and laugh at Max, which instigated the shoving. You can’t tell me EO would have done that move on the track to LH, let alone would he have sneered at what would have been an equally furious LH. Ocon was childish at a bare minimum, and was the one in control after the race of either diffusing it with contrition, or escalating it, and he chose to escalate it, and rub Max’s loss in his face. And for what? He was a back marker. To me Ocon’s actions said much about his immaturity and poor choices.

        1. In the end Ocon deliberately took Max out. His penalty was therefore way to lenient since it was intentional. Intentional should mean a race ban or season ban. Since no one can prove intent, he got away with it (and maybe since Vettel gets away with swearing at the race director and deliberately bumping into Lewis under a safety car period it has become impossible to penalize some-one… was that before or after their incident by the way?). Anyway, good for him, but that Ocon did this (as a payback for something that happened years ago) says really a lot about his character and fit in this sport. I have little expectations of him.

      2. Hope he chills out this year.

        1. do not hold your breath on that

          1. i don’t care who you defend.

  6. I hope Alonso is still in good shape, he’s always fun to have on the grid.

  7. Yes, they can. But they won’t Brivio.

  8. I’ll be amazed if there are any problems between them on track.
    I really think ALO will be miles down the road, unless there are some exceptional circumstances.

  9. Maybe its time for a bet. How many races until the situation at Alpine becomes a soap and attention goes out to the soap rather than their racing? My opening bet is 6 races and I even predict one of the two drivers not finishing this season.

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