Ocon and Gasly ‘don’t need to be best friends’

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have stressed that they are aware of the requirement to collaborate successfully at Alpine despite their previously cool relationship.  

Ocon and Gasly were childhood friends, having grown up in Normandy and karted together, but their relationship deteriorated as their careers developed.

They have been pitched together at Alpine for 2023, with Gasly joining from AlphaTauri in place of Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso.

Alpine has set itself the target of finishing at worst fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, while reducing the points gap to Formula 1’s leading three, and both drivers are cognisant of the need to work closely together.

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“Obviously you guys like the headlines and all these kinds of stories but we are both very professional and we are going to work the way we need to be performing,” said Ocon.

“I don’t think we will ever be best friends but that doesn’t matter really, as long as the atmosphere is great inside the team – and that’s how it is at the moment and that’s how it will remain during the year.

“But the important thing is that we keep those open conversations that we are having at the moment and we will have them because we are not at the point where we can win every race.

“We need to develop this car, we need to get the maximum conversation flow going to find ideas going forward, so I’m not worried.

“It’s going to be a great collaboration together, it has already started, and I look forward to keeping it.”

Gasly explained that “it’s been really good” to re-build their relationship, following a winter working together, which has included promotional trips to Lapland and Paris.

“I’ve spent more time with him in the past two months than the last 10 years,” said Gasly.

“We’re grown up people now, mature people, aware of the responsibility of being an Alpine driver and having a big group behind us.

“We just know we’ve got to work closely together if we want to be competitive and push the team forward. We have to work together and that’s why I have no doubt everything will be fine.”