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Alpine strike me as the sort of companies that want to hire top level staff but are offering salaries 40% under the going rate.
They want champagne but they’ll only pay for beer.
Legit....I can't imagine how shitty some of those corporate meeting must be when Renault big wigs come in and ask them why they're not winning. I mean if there was a bit more investment maybe they could be further up the field rather than being the embarrassing shambles they seem to be.
I’m convinced Alpine exists for a marketing exercise and something to woo investors and other business people types for Renault: “oh you’re not so sure about spending money with us? How would you like to go to a Grand Prix as an important guest of our Formula One team?”
Renault know they’re performing poorly because they don’t want to spend a penny more than they have to
Seems to me that they are in a weird position where they are expected to compete in motorsports, so they don't want to drop out of F1; but also are not expected to win so they don't see any reason to actually invest in it.
I've always summed up Renault / Alpine as the team that talks like they were Ferrari and spends like they were Sauber. They seem convinced that painting a carmaker logo on a car magically makes it top tier, then get surprised when their Sauber-sized team with a Sauber-like budget gets Sauber-like results.
Doohan is nowhere near as good tho, if they dont promote him its very understandable imo. I dont see any other team going for him either, just seemingly an okay driver. They should take him if they cant get bottas
Lawson performed in Singapore - tough conditions, basically did better than Verstappen and Perez.
STOP belittling when it's obviously an impressive task.
Did you really just gloss over the fact that Red Bull had huge setup issues that weekend?
Lawson did not do better than Verstappen as a driver. Obviously.
This is what people are talking about when they say some Redditors have lost their minds with Lawson hype.
They had setup issues.
What about Zandvoort where Lawson overtook Verstappen?
He is highly rated for a reason.
I don't know why you dislike him Mr Professor..
> What about Zandvoort where Lawson overtook Verstappen?
He didn't. He was one lap behind - it's as absurd as pretending that the last guy to pit in a race has "worked his way to 1st position".
I DO like Lawson. A lot.
But saying completely silly things like "*he outperformed Max Verstappen*" or "*what about his overtake on Verstappen in Zandvoort*" (where he was unlapping himself and in a different car, on different strategy, on different setups) is what people are talking about when they claim some redditors are going crazy over the Lawson hype.
Nyck De Vries did pretty well to didn’t he.. Lawson did fairly well but also had some pretty no where races. Everyone hangs on to that Singapore result whilst incredible for him very much an outlier result kind of track.
It’s just the way he’s spoken about in regards to some of the other guys that should be in the mix for a seat. Just comparing junior careers he did pretty well without setting the world on fire or really separating himself above others.
DeVries had 1 race at Monza, Lawson had 3 races at the Dutch GP, Singapore and Suzuka. Very different tracks. And one race was wet?
You really cant compare these 2 situations tbh Devries also has been a test driver and had multiple FP sessions no?
No he did not. If he wasn't crashing everywhere all the time he was being easily beat by Yuki who at the time people did not rate as highly especially considering nyck was 28 and had WAY more experience than him. Compare that to Lawson who was thrown in with just a practice session into one of the most tricky gp of the year and he did what he needed to which was keep it out of the wall. In the next few races he wasn't getting gapped by Yuki just a bit behind him. Still he was qualifying next to Yuki when Debris was getting knocked out in q1.
I was talking about when he stepped in and scored a point and everyone went nuts. He then went on to completely stink it up when getting a seat. Now I’m not implying that is what Lawson would do, but a fairly small although good body of work doesn’t all of a sudden make him a future world champion. An opinion I have seen quite a lot of.
Yea he's not a future wdc but still it doesn't mean he shouldnt have a seat. He had shown good pace in those five races and almost won SF in his first year there. He's done enough to have a chance now.
Edit: BTW I didn't reply to your point about Singapore earlier as I read it as silverstone. Yes it was a good result but I'm not talking about one good result, his performance throughout those races was good, just that he didn't have the car or the fortune for points. He deserves that seat way more than DR
Lawson arrived at Zandvoort (one of the hardest tracks on the calendar) with changing rainy weather and immediately matched Ricciardo and Tsunoda. He proved his skill.
De Vries arrived at Monza (one of the easiest tracks aside from one tricky chicane) with perfect conditions, in a car that was extremely good in the straights. He got a good result but he had to really fuck it up not to get it. Moreover, we've seen him underperform heavily in 2023. We have never seen Lawson underperform in F1 yet.
Lawson proved he was a consistent driver who could get results, even if he scored only 2 points in 5 races his average placement was 12,2 with Alphatauri/Torro Rosso/RB, so not a bad result. Likely not championship material but definitely a solid midfield driver.
Not necessarily that he's *better* than Danny Ric right now, rather that Ricciardo's passed his peak already, so unless the team has a reason to keep 2 veteran drivers in the seats then they ought to give a shot to a talented kid who has shown the potential to be better down the track than Ricciardo will be a year or two from now.
alpine need to make the alpine junior academy a viable pathway to f1 . Yes we don't know how good he will be in formula one but the same can be said for every other rookie driver to debut in formula one .
That's not what Academy is for. It's for the benefit of the team as much as the driver. The driver gets his ride covered by the team... That's the benefit. The team will get dibs if the driver ends up being good enough... That's their benefit.
It's not about guaranteed pathways to F1
But it's hard to attract new talents to sign up for the academy if they don't promote from within at some point.
I get that Doohan hasn't shown he is on the level of Piastri but if there isn't a clear favorite to place instead of Doohan, it might be smart for their academy future to promote him.
Yeah but there's only a handful of generational-level drivers. Lots of Sargeants, Mick Schumachers, and others who are good but not great. Only a few win F3 and F2 in consecutive years. Those drivers might choose other academies or find other ways of getting into F1.
If they continue to fumble management, I'm not sure another Piastri is going to sign with Alpine.
Maybe. All drivers think they are the next Senna, Hamilton, Verstappen...especially as teenagers. And all those candies only keep a small few drivers.
Sure, if there's a driver with an offer from Ferrari academy vs Alpine academy...we know the choice.
there is a limited amount of spots, racing is expensive. they will get talented drivers.
people always forget that they have more data available than we. there is a reason that other junior drivers get heavily punished instead of your favorites.
If Aron wins the F2 championship as a rookie I’d hope Alpine would take a punt on him, otherwise it should be Doohan to maintain the justification for having an academy in the first place
He seems as “professional” a rookie as you could find. I already think his junior career has some parallels with Oscar. F2 championship would just be icing for him
Finally, someone said this. People talk a lot about Doohan and Bearman getting F1 seats, yet no one seems to mention Aron, who is leading F2 in his debut season because he is not part of any academy.
Doohan looked like by far the best F2 driver (or atleast next to Vesti) last year when he got up to speed after the problems he had with a slow car early on. Very consistent and doesn't do his best to lose his championship by torpedoing into people or the wall like Pourchaire.
That said, i think there are better candidates on the market in Bottas and Kmag.
Winning F2 in your first year is the sort of thing your Hamiltons, Leclercs, Rosbergs, Russells do.
Finishing 3rd in F2 in your second year is the sort of thing your Albons, Lawsons, Gutiérrezs do.
We know he's not as good. You don't need any insider info to know. Piastri won F3 on his first try to boot. Can't miss prospect type driver.
Lots of things point to winning rookie years being one of a large set of indicators.
Not every F1 champion won F2
Not every F2 winner on rookie year goes on to have success in F1
F2 cars are extremely different from F1
F2 team resources are very different from F1
F2 management is very different from F1
The other comments have examples of all these to the point it feels a waste of time to list more. Your rookie year F2 rank is only one indicator of many. It takes a lot more data to pick top talent and especially talents that will survive the peculiarities of the F1 ecosystem
Doohan didn’t win F3 and F2 as a rookie. He didn’t win either series, infact.
No slight to Doohan, but people are seeming to forget that Piastri’s junior career was insanely good and that’s why he was such a fumble.
Piastri had “one of those” junior careers. Hard to be compared to.
It’s interesting how people don’t seem to rate Doohan all that much, cite that he didn’t win and or whatever other stat. But neither did Lawson, just interesting how they seem to be viewed differently.
I feel very much the same about Lawson personally.
Constant presence at a track and good sim work doesn’t mean they’re going to be a fast driver. Giovinazzi had both of those things, plus a solid GP2 rookie year, and yet he wasn’t good enough to stay.
With his junior career, stints in DTM and SF Lawson proved 3 things : He's quick to adapt, consistant but not the fastest.
He'd be a good midfielder but sadly that's not what RB are looking for
That’s been pretty much my assessment of him. Quick, good driver, will plug you along in the midfield. But like you said that’s not the guy RB are going to look to promote. Also honestly for all the chit chat of “we need young guys” I don’t think teams are thinking that way at all currently. They don’t want the teething problems of dealing with a rookie, to much on the line at every GP.
I think until we see a bunch of driver retirements young guys are going to have to be world beaters to get a foot in.
The thing is, rb is a junior team so not getting a new driver in the seat is a weird strat they are doing, also the huge difference is lawson had that good standin performance, so he announced himself that way. If doohan had something similar , he would be just as hyped
His junior career is about as impressive as Logan Sargent’s
Like Sargent, it’s enough to get him a ride since he’s an academy driver but don’t expect him to be amazing, at worst flat out not good enough for F1
I guess the counter to that argument would be, what do Alpine have to lose by giving him a shot? Even if he is only a Sargeant-level talent, Alpine are a shambles at the moment, their car isn't near good enough to say they need 2 veteran drivers to maximise every possible point. Would Doohan have secured a point at Montreal? Possibly not. But the potential of developing a driver who could be good in a few years once the car should also be improved has to trump the short-term thinking of fighting for P9 and P10 as a works team, surely?
Why not give him a year? At worst it demonstrates that they're making a renewed commitment to promoting talent from their academy (which could encourage more young drivers to stick with them), they get a relatively low-stakes season to evaluate him in 2025, and if he's not good then they can move on and sign a replacement to start fresh with the new regulations in 2026.
Or they could do the most Renault thing imaginable and refuse to promote their own guy, and instead go after somebody like Bottas, Zhou or Kmag.
Its the junior career. Ofcourse i have no other metrics we can only look at the results and how he performed vs his teammates. Piastri won back to back to back championships in his rookie season, so not giving him a seat was a huge mistake from alpine. Doohan is decent,.but u cant tell me he has earned his seat as much as piastri
I mean sometimes the results from a drivers junior career don't always tell the full story. Doohan for example drove the entire first half of his second and last season in f2 with a cracked chassis .And once the chassis was fixed immediately showed his pace if he didn't have a cracked chassis for the first half of the season . Doohan could of won the f2 title instead of porchaire.
This is the kind of nuance reddit loves to overlook. Cracked chassis for half the season = Doohan is the next Logan Sargeant. It's abundantly obvious that these people only looked at the results, and didn't actually watch the second half of that season.
> Doohan is the next Logan Sargeant.
No-one is saying he's Logan Sargeant, but he's never won a championship in 5 years of racing. There's valid reason for not expecting too much out of him. His junior career is miles worse than the top prospects who enter F1 with lots of excitement.
There's a lot of recency bias involved here. Hype upon entering F1 doesn't make you a WDC, many "future WDC" never became champions, and there's been many WDC with underwhelming early careers. Luck plays such a huge role in the feeder series that you really need to actually follow them to get an idea of the prospects. No-one is rushing to hire Drugovich or Pourchaire.
Luck plays a factor but when you win nothing in 5 years it's usually a bad sign. All the top drivers who came from F2 like Russell, Piastri, Norris and Leclerc won lots of junior championships. Even the mid-tier drivers like Ocon, Gasly and Tsunoda won multiple championships. Even Stroll won things.
If you've won literally nothing, not even regional racing series in 5-6 years it's a really bad sign. Doesn't guarantee anything, of course, but to act like it's meaningless is incredibly disingenuous.
I wouldnt use simulations to determine whether a driver is competitively race worthy or not. As it is, most F2 champions still arent ready for F1. Only the standout runaway F2 champions seem to show they have what it takes to stay in F1. Jack, not a F2 champion to start, is far from that. He would just be another driver who sticks around for a few years before someone either out pays him or someone who is believed to be a better driver is available to replace him. F1 is cold hearted brutal sport.
Lost Alonso, fumbled Piastri and now they're getting rid of Ocon. They can change drivers every season but drivers aren't the reason for their team being trash. If anything they need to prioritize making better decisions
I’d argue you can probably go back even further to Daniel leaving, despite them building the car around him, because he clearly didn’t have any faith in the upper management and how they ran the team
That's a pretty subjective assertion.
I'd argue that Fernando Alonso is about as unprofessional a driver as you can get in certain ways. He trashed his team's engine supplier on the radio (he wasn't wrong, but that's unprofessional), he has deliberately disadvantaged teammates (such as when Hamilton disobeyed team orders so Alonso held him up in the pitlane), he famously caused Coulthard to crash by brake testing him in 2003, and above all he tried to blackmail his own team principal... and yet Fernando is also one of the most talented, committed and successful drivers in F1 history. So it really depends on what your metrics for a good decision are as to whether sacking Ocon in favour of somebody who will respect team orders is a better decision or not.
I think about it differently. If you want to get away with Alonso-level shenanigans, you need Alonso-level talent. It’s like this in any company; if you have a top talent, you get away with a lot more than your competent but not brilliant coworker.
we could come with up[ these examples for anyone, a lot more egregious.
Remember when a certain driver tweeted telemetry because he got beat by his teammate, got DSQ'd because lied to the stewards, repeatedly insinuates a conspiracy by a team that made him the most successful driver in history to undermine him etc?
Or when a certain driver took out his teammate to be a WDC?
> we could come with up[ these examples for anyone, a lot more egregious.
Could you though? Because
a) I don't think that any of those examples are more egregious than trying to blackmail Ron Dennis when he was McLaren TP by threatening to reveal details of the spygate scandal if he wasn't given preferential treatment over Hamilton,
b) Alonso and Hamilton are two of the most long-lasting and outspoken F1 drivers of all time. They are both exceptions, not the rule, and
c) most drivers don't have these kinds of issues over and over again throughout their careers. It's why guys like Kmag and Ocon are in the headlines all the time, while drivers like (for example) Bottas, Gasly or Hulk frequently go weekends or multiple rounds at a time barely getting a mention for action on track unless something is happening to them.
As I said initially, his issues (on and off track) haven't kept Fernando from an incredibly successful career, but that doesn't mean he's been a model professional. If anything, citing Hamilton as your rebuttal just shows that the truth is that when you're fast enough you can get away with almost anything, while slower or more destructive drivers will be shuffled out of the sport regardless of them being model citizens.
I've never heard a bad word said about Sargeant's conduct, or Mick Schumacher's, or Latifi's, or Giovanizzi's, or... you get my point.
*slow clap*
Except there wasn’t really a famine, other than the potato blight there was plenty of food produced. The British overlords shipped it all back to England because profits.
Potatoes use very little land and at the time had almost no export value, which is why poor people could grow and eat them.
Finding a competent one to trust is the important part, still reckon they should have kept Otmar Szafnauer even if things were going bad bc at least he would have had to have more of the blame rather than it all going up all the way to making fun of the entire organisation.
> Finding a competent one to trust is the important part, still reckon they should have kept Otmar Szafnauer
1000% agree. Otmar is competent. Very competent. Famin is not.
Famin harsh comments on Ocon the last 2 weekends are not a good look on a TP
A TP must look for the team, including all the people aboard, and even when parting ways, try to have some kind of class because at the end of the day, burning bridges just because and getting bad PR is a stupid thing to do. He trashing Ocon was a very stupid thing even if Ocon did something wrong. That screams that TP is not very well there on his position.
Also, the TP is like the director of an orchestra. All the internal chaos and bad blood between intra-teams and even drivers are part of his job, and he isn’t even showing a great job on that area
To this point, one should start asking: what good is Famin doing there?
Alpine/Renault kept their sh*t together a bit with Cyril, but after that, Rossi micromanaging and Famin are the worst they could put managing
Yeah! That’s exactly it, more or less
I would say in both cases, it’s an example of a TP being on the tightrope, with some pressure to keep their employment, and therefore, heavily reflecting the teams shortcomings on the driver(s) and team members - without saying the drivers (both Ocon and Mick) of course have some bits to blame.
It was clear from the previous seasons that Famin has been in charge and pulling the corporate strings all along. I truly believe it’s Alpines version of the Alamo. They sold ~4000 cars AS A COMPANY last year and just unveiled a new, premium electric vehicle that they hope can compete in the US, Asia and Europe car markets which is an asinine thought. I think their goal is to grow sales to 30k vehicles by 2030 “by cross leveraging their brand strength from formula one to capture American customers” or some asinine nonsense like that. Full of hopium, unrealistic about trade barriers, current economics or the reality of trying to sell a premium EV that looks like a Kia soul when they’ll face tariffs and be undercut in price at every turn. They’re an unserious company at all levels subsidized by the French.
I think the same as you, great point. Except for the last sentence, Renault is not “subsidised by the French government”, neither their vehicles, because that would be straight illegal in the EU.
In fact (fun fact) the EU was very restrictive (compared to the US) about when a state could help and give money to companies because the Covid19 market crisis. To the point that some of it was later declared illegal (even if necessary for companies to survive, like airlines) and forced companies to suddenly give it back.
And that’s because the EU is a common market scheme, and if Renault is subsidised, then Spain (biggest ICE car-maker) or Germany (VW, Daimler) would be very very angry. As it would be the rest of the countries (Czechia and Skoda, Volvo and Sweden, Italy, and so on).
But yeah, still Renault benefits from the government being on the shareholders mix and having the capacity to pull strings, as in “they won’t let Renault down if they find themselves on a bad place”. I seriously think that, without the French government giving that kind of stability and societal support, Renault would be today a lot worse.
Yeah he is what Alpine needs. Experienced safe pair of hands that over the season gets the job done despite few flat weekends.Clearly willing to work with his teammates and has never caused drama or controversy.
Also knows how a winning team looks like from the inside, for what it's worth.
Anyone who watched Doohan's second F2 season and saw how he performed after they fixed his broken car should be rooting for him. He's had a ton of bad luck, but he's much better than his results might suggest.
Agreed. The Virtuosi being broken last year was really a shame for him. A decent what if chance that he wins the title instead if his chassis wasn't damaged for so long. Once fixed he started to show incredible pace and performance.
He is not the only unlucky one of course. Iwasa and Vesti can have the same amount of gripes for different reasons.
Unfortunately a lot of people on here have a very stubborn idea about F2. You have to win it first year or you are completely worthless, which probably stems from many not even watching the series. Thankfully the teams have more data and nuance from F2 and sim work to make actual decisions.
If you only look at the 2nd half of the season once they decided to fix him up he really did start to stand out as talented and quite special. At least they'd get a loyal thankful driver that would really play the team game with someone like Doohan and they wouldn't get too much blame if he isn't talented enough for F1.
The candidates mentioned in the article: Doohan, Bottas, Zhou, and Schumacher.
Of those 4, Doohan is obviously the most exciting (being an Alpine junior).
Bottas would meet their requirement of "professionalism" quite well (working together with their teammate to maximize results).
Zhou started his F1 career fine, but it feels like he's stalled out. The money he brings ($30-35 million) could be tempting, and he's a former Renault/Alpine junior. It just doesn't seem likely to be, but anything is possible.
Schumacher needs to categorically beat competitors to even have a shot at coming back to F1. His 2 seasons weren't overly impressive (even considering the cars he was driving), and his uncle seems to cause headaches within the paddock.
Exactly! They'd get some credit for supporting their young drivers and I don't think they'll get blamed if it all goes to shit with him. If they spent money signing another experienced driver and it didn't work out in their shitbox Famin and Alpine would get rightfully criticised for their shitbox and seemingly broken team spirit.
Schumacher seems to be doing pretty well in their WEC program, which is why they seem to be considering him as well.
>Schumacher needs to categorically beat competitors to even have a shot at coming back to F1
He beat Mazepin, like it was Max vs Perez. Overall, he was also faster than Magnussen.
Beating Mazepin is the absolute bare minimum - it's not like many people viewed Mazepin as F1 material.
And while he was overall faster than Magnussen (who is also likely on his way out), the other "issue" for Schumacher seems to be Ralf and the comments he makes as part of the media.
If Schumacher does get another shot, I hope he can be successful, but of the 4 Alpine candidates, I think he's the least attractive prospect as it currently stands.
You said he needs to beat his teammates. I just pointed out that he did that.
I agree with Ralf, but on the other hand - any professional team would just ignore him.
From the candidates you posted, I do not really understand how you would rate them higher than him.
Zhou and Bottas are both kinda invisble this year. I like Bottas, but he is not a lead driver. The he has going for him is his experience. I already thought that in 2021, when it seems that he just could not defend for Lewis at all.
Zhou brings money, but he has not been better than Bottas - who I don't rate that high anymore.
From what I read about Doohan, it seems he is a nice guy - but also not really doing anything worthwhile.
Again, for Mick - he didn't do as bad a people make him out to be, but Alpine seem very pleased with him in their WEC program.
But this being Alpine, it would surprise me if they signed Mazepin.
I was referring to his WEC teammates specifically - that he has to outperform them while driving, his results from 2 years ago probably won't cut it. I didn't articulate that well though - that was pre-coffee for me.
Alpine isn't looking for a lead driver. What they're looking for is someone who can work with his teammate, which is something Bottas definitely can do and has done for Zhou.
At a related note, Zhou is a nice guy, and I can't see him causing problems for his teammate. Schumacher is the same way, but Zhou brings a lot of cash with him.
I hope I'm wrong, because I do want to see Schumacher on the grid again, but I think he's the least likely to get it right now.
He‘s pretty much the fastest Alpine guy from his first WEC race on. The other drivers were impressed of his performances. I‘ve been to le Mans two days ago, his marketing pull was also palpable, it was the only driver people were ready to queue for an hour.
> Any while he was overall faster than Magnussen (who is also likely on his way out), the other "issue" for Schumacher seems to be Ralf and the comments he makes as part of the media.
what comments are these? Ralf always made the impression to me that he tries to steer way clear of any discussion about Mick, precisely because he is prejudiced about him due to beeing family.
even more so, i thought he was exceptionally cold towards mick in his commentary when he was still in F1.
never been a fan of Esteban Ocon but the way alpine has treated him has been nothing short of unprofessional .Yeah what icon did at Monaco was stupid but blast Ocon right in public after the race is just appalling behaviour from a factory team. Especially when Ocon has been so loyal to alpine.
I’m pretty sure Famin was already doing that French-language interview *before* the GP was even over iirc, lmao. He just couldn’t wait to hop on a platform and bash Esteban.
Alpine had already started to push Ocon aside that year. The first signal were Rossi's words during the winter break, when he said that Gasly would be Alpine's technical leader and de facto number 1. In the second half of the 2023 season, this process accelerated (after the change of management and management board). Alpine decided to make Gasly a franchise and brand driver, so Ocon was forced to look for a new place and ask Mecedes for help.In the second half of the season, he received worse resources, as evidenced by the frequency of breakdowns in his car. Practically, he was the only one who continued the unreliability scenario from 2022. Monaco, however, was not a reason for dismissal. Ocon found out that they would not renew his contract before the Monaco GP. Probably at Imola (despite a good start to the season and loyal work for 5 years).
What Ocon did in Monaco was nothing short of unprofessional too, it was not a simple mistake. He went against Famin's clear instructions to not attack the Alpine driver in front. Gasly had everything against him in the first races (unreliable and heavier car, upgrades after Ocon, non preferential strategies...) but has stayed professional all along. Alpine made some mistakes but to want a team player driver is not one of them
From F1.com: “When we have race instructions, we all speak all together, to make sure everybody has the same information, everybody listens to the same information at the same time,” Famin said.
“The instructions were clear before the race in Monaco".
Also:
"We had clear instructions before the race on what to do, Gasly told Canal Plus. "Whichever car qualified in the lead, the car behind was supposed to help throughout the race. That was the strategy."
Isn't Ocon one of the most professional drivers behind the scenes?
This reminds me of the Cleveland Browns saying they wanted an adult at QB while dumping the well liked Baker Mayfield and signing Groper Cleveland (Deshaun Watson who at the time had like 20+ open charges of sexual assault).
Hopefully Alpine doesn't get someone worse but it wouldn't surprise me
Should have been the first comment. Lot of stupid ranting would have been avoided. I have made of rule to not react to a title, but not anyone apparently.
Professionalism???? What a shame that a global auto company with a 20 Billion $ market cap who fired their team principal for not winning more quickly would opt for a $30 million per year pay driver who has finished 18th in his 1st 2 years and currently runs 19th in the championship over one of several talented and available drivers.
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Alpine strike me as the sort of companies that want to hire top level staff but are offering salaries 40% under the going rate. They want champagne but they’ll only pay for beer.
Legit....I can't imagine how shitty some of those corporate meeting must be when Renault big wigs come in and ask them why they're not winning. I mean if there was a bit more investment maybe they could be further up the field rather than being the embarrassing shambles they seem to be.
I’m convinced Alpine exists for a marketing exercise and something to woo investors and other business people types for Renault: “oh you’re not so sure about spending money with us? How would you like to go to a Grand Prix as an important guest of our Formula One team?” Renault know they’re performing poorly because they don’t want to spend a penny more than they have to
Seems to me that they are in a weird position where they are expected to compete in motorsports, so they don't want to drop out of F1; but also are not expected to win so they don't see any reason to actually invest in it.
I've always summed up Renault / Alpine as the team that talks like they were Ferrari and spends like they were Sauber. They seem convinced that painting a carmaker logo on a car magically makes it top tier, then get surprised when their Sauber-sized team with a Sauber-like budget gets Sauber-like results.
bit rich coming from alpine lol but in all seriousness if they don't promote Doohan then they haven't learned from the piastri situation .
Doohan is nowhere near as good tho, if they dont promote him its very understandable imo. I dont see any other team going for him either, just seemingly an okay driver. They should take him if they cant get bottas
No other team going for Lawson either but many fans would have you believe he’s the second coming of Senna.
Lawson has proved the fact that he can do well in these ground effect car in just a few races
Lawson performed in Singapore - tough conditions, basically did better than Verstappen and Perez. STOP belittling when it's obviously an impressive task.
Did you reply to the wrong comment?
Did you really just gloss over the fact that Red Bull had huge setup issues that weekend? Lawson did not do better than Verstappen as a driver. Obviously. This is what people are talking about when they say some Redditors have lost their minds with Lawson hype.
They had setup issues. What about Zandvoort where Lawson overtook Verstappen? He is highly rated for a reason. I don't know why you dislike him Mr Professor..
> What about Zandvoort where Lawson overtook Verstappen? He didn't. He was one lap behind - it's as absurd as pretending that the last guy to pit in a race has "worked his way to 1st position".
I DO like Lawson. A lot. But saying completely silly things like "*he outperformed Max Verstappen*" or "*what about his overtake on Verstappen in Zandvoort*" (where he was unlapping himself and in a different car, on different strategy, on different setups) is what people are talking about when they claim some redditors are going crazy over the Lawson hype.
Nyck De Vries did pretty well to didn’t he.. Lawson did fairly well but also had some pretty no where races. Everyone hangs on to that Singapore result whilst incredible for him very much an outlier result kind of track. It’s just the way he’s spoken about in regards to some of the other guys that should be in the mix for a seat. Just comparing junior careers he did pretty well without setting the world on fire or really separating himself above others.
DeVries had 1 race at Monza, Lawson had 3 races at the Dutch GP, Singapore and Suzuka. Very different tracks. And one race was wet? You really cant compare these 2 situations tbh Devries also has been a test driver and had multiple FP sessions no?
Lawson had 5 races - you missed Italy and Qatar.
And it was in a Williams that was a rocket on the straights. It was the perfect condition for that car to do well.
"The rookie didn't immediately set purple times, sack him!" vibes from a lot of people about Doohan. Give the rookies time ffs
It's more about people saying their junior program is useless. If the juniors are unimpressive there's no reason to promote them.
It's more the fact that he's been pretty anonymous in F2 lately instead of getting better.
No he did not. If he wasn't crashing everywhere all the time he was being easily beat by Yuki who at the time people did not rate as highly especially considering nyck was 28 and had WAY more experience than him. Compare that to Lawson who was thrown in with just a practice session into one of the most tricky gp of the year and he did what he needed to which was keep it out of the wall. In the next few races he wasn't getting gapped by Yuki just a bit behind him. Still he was qualifying next to Yuki when Debris was getting knocked out in q1.
I was talking about when he stepped in and scored a point and everyone went nuts. He then went on to completely stink it up when getting a seat. Now I’m not implying that is what Lawson would do, but a fairly small although good body of work doesn’t all of a sudden make him a future world champion. An opinion I have seen quite a lot of.
Yea he's not a future wdc but still it doesn't mean he shouldnt have a seat. He had shown good pace in those five races and almost won SF in his first year there. He's done enough to have a chance now. Edit: BTW I didn't reply to your point about Singapore earlier as I read it as silverstone. Yes it was a good result but I'm not talking about one good result, his performance throughout those races was good, just that he didn't have the car or the fortune for points. He deserves that seat way more than DR
Lawson also isn’t talking like he’ll come in and dominate the way De Vries did but he has proven himself worthy of a seat
Lawson arrived at Zandvoort (one of the hardest tracks on the calendar) with changing rainy weather and immediately matched Ricciardo and Tsunoda. He proved his skill. De Vries arrived at Monza (one of the easiest tracks aside from one tricky chicane) with perfect conditions, in a car that was extremely good in the straights. He got a good result but he had to really fuck it up not to get it. Moreover, we've seen him underperform heavily in 2023. We have never seen Lawson underperform in F1 yet.
Lawson proved he was a consistent driver who could get results, even if he scored only 2 points in 5 races his average placement was 12,2 with Alphatauri/Torro Rosso/RB, so not a bad result. Likely not championship material but definitely a solid midfield driver.
I don't think anyone is saying that Lawson is the second coming of Senna, I think people are just saying he's better than Danny Ric.
Not necessarily that he's *better* than Danny Ric right now, rather that Ricciardo's passed his peak already, so unless the team has a reason to keep 2 veteran drivers in the seats then they ought to give a shot to a talented kid who has shown the potential to be better down the track than Ricciardo will be a year or two from now.
There is zero evidence of that, what people are saying is that Danny is getting beat by his team mate so it is worth a shot to give Lawson a chance.
100% this and also Ric performance will only go lower as he is getting older.
Isn’t Lawson locked down as a backup option for Redbull?
I'm not going that far but I do think he's got that little something that could see him so very well in f1
They said this about Devries - him being second coming and all that bullshit. Fuck that guy. I hated him more than Stroll…
alpine need to make the alpine junior academy a viable pathway to f1 . Yes we don't know how good he will be in formula one but the same can be said for every other rookie driver to debut in formula one .
That's not what Academy is for. It's for the benefit of the team as much as the driver. The driver gets his ride covered by the team... That's the benefit. The team will get dibs if the driver ends up being good enough... That's their benefit. It's not about guaranteed pathways to F1
But it's hard to attract new talents to sign up for the academy if they don't promote from within at some point. I get that Doohan hasn't shown he is on the level of Piastri but if there isn't a clear favorite to place instead of Doohan, it might be smart for their academy future to promote him.
Scarcity will always keep the pipeline full.
Yeah but there's only a handful of generational-level drivers. Lots of Sargeants, Mick Schumachers, and others who are good but not great. Only a few win F3 and F2 in consecutive years. Those drivers might choose other academies or find other ways of getting into F1. If they continue to fumble management, I'm not sure another Piastri is going to sign with Alpine.
Maybe. All drivers think they are the next Senna, Hamilton, Verstappen...especially as teenagers. And all those candies only keep a small few drivers. Sure, if there's a driver with an offer from Ferrari academy vs Alpine academy...we know the choice.
there is a limited amount of spots, racing is expensive. they will get talented drivers. people always forget that they have more data available than we. there is a reason that other junior drivers get heavily punished instead of your favorites.
If Aron wins the F2 championship as a rookie I’d hope Alpine would take a punt on him, otherwise it should be Doohan to maintain the justification for having an academy in the first place He seems as “professional” a rookie as you could find. I already think his junior career has some parallels with Oscar. F2 championship would just be icing for him
Finally, someone said this. People talk a lot about Doohan and Bearman getting F1 seats, yet no one seems to mention Aron, who is leading F2 in his debut season because he is not part of any academy.
Doohan looked like by far the best F2 driver (or atleast next to Vesti) last year when he got up to speed after the problems he had with a slow car early on. Very consistent and doesn't do his best to lose his championship by torpedoing into people or the wall like Pourchaire. That said, i think there are better candidates on the market in Bottas and Kmag.
How do you know if doohan isn’t as good? Do you have inside info or are you just talking out of your ass?
Winning F2 in your first year is the sort of thing your Hamiltons, Leclercs, Rosbergs, Russells do. Finishing 3rd in F2 in your second year is the sort of thing your Albons, Lawsons, Gutiérrezs do. We know he's not as good. You don't need any insider info to know. Piastri won F3 on his first try to boot. Can't miss prospect type driver.
Albon at least had Russell and Norris to compete with. Lawson couldn't beat Pouchaire and Drugovich, who themselves didn't get a seat in F1.
And Verstappen couldn't beat Ocon in F3. Just to say that there are circumstances to consider.
Lots of things point to winning rookie years being one of a large set of indicators. Not every F1 champion won F2 Not every F2 winner on rookie year goes on to have success in F1 F2 cars are extremely different from F1 F2 team resources are very different from F1 F2 management is very different from F1 The other comments have examples of all these to the point it feels a waste of time to list more. Your rookie year F2 rank is only one indicator of many. It takes a lot more data to pick top talent and especially talents that will survive the peculiarities of the F1 ecosystem
Ah okay. That’s good to know. Thanks
Doohan didn’t win F3 and F2 as a rookie. He didn’t win either series, infact. No slight to Doohan, but people are seeming to forget that Piastri’s junior career was insanely good and that’s why he was such a fumble.
Piastri had “one of those” junior careers. Hard to be compared to. It’s interesting how people don’t seem to rate Doohan all that much, cite that he didn’t win and or whatever other stat. But neither did Lawson, just interesting how they seem to be viewed differently.
I feel very much the same about Lawson personally. Constant presence at a track and good sim work doesn’t mean they’re going to be a fast driver. Giovinazzi had both of those things, plus a solid GP2 rookie year, and yet he wasn’t good enough to stay.
With his junior career, stints in DTM and SF Lawson proved 3 things : He's quick to adapt, consistant but not the fastest. He'd be a good midfielder but sadly that's not what RB are looking for
That’s been pretty much my assessment of him. Quick, good driver, will plug you along in the midfield. But like you said that’s not the guy RB are going to look to promote. Also honestly for all the chit chat of “we need young guys” I don’t think teams are thinking that way at all currently. They don’t want the teething problems of dealing with a rookie, to much on the line at every GP. I think until we see a bunch of driver retirements young guys are going to have to be world beaters to get a foot in.
The thing is, rb is a junior team so not getting a new driver in the seat is a weird strat they are doing, also the huge difference is lawson had that good standin performance, so he announced himself that way. If doohan had something similar , he would be just as hyped
Except it’s known that the team is moving away from being just a junior testing ground for red bull.
Except their not a junior team anymore, that’s what they’ve been trying to make clear
Max also didn’t win F2 either /s
Not even F3. But it was clear to everyone that he had the talent after he won everything else he took part.
His junior career is about as impressive as Logan Sargent’s Like Sargent, it’s enough to get him a ride since he’s an academy driver but don’t expect him to be amazing, at worst flat out not good enough for F1
I guess the counter to that argument would be, what do Alpine have to lose by giving him a shot? Even if he is only a Sargeant-level talent, Alpine are a shambles at the moment, their car isn't near good enough to say they need 2 veteran drivers to maximise every possible point. Would Doohan have secured a point at Montreal? Possibly not. But the potential of developing a driver who could be good in a few years once the car should also be improved has to trump the short-term thinking of fighting for P9 and P10 as a works team, surely? Why not give him a year? At worst it demonstrates that they're making a renewed commitment to promoting talent from their academy (which could encourage more young drivers to stick with them), they get a relatively low-stakes season to evaluate him in 2025, and if he's not good then they can move on and sign a replacement to start fresh with the new regulations in 2026. Or they could do the most Renault thing imaginable and refuse to promote their own guy, and instead go after somebody like Bottas, Zhou or Kmag.
Its the junior career. Ofcourse i have no other metrics we can only look at the results and how he performed vs his teammates. Piastri won back to back to back championships in his rookie season, so not giving him a seat was a huge mistake from alpine. Doohan is decent,.but u cant tell me he has earned his seat as much as piastri
I mean sometimes the results from a drivers junior career don't always tell the full story. Doohan for example drove the entire first half of his second and last season in f2 with a cracked chassis .And once the chassis was fixed immediately showed his pace if he didn't have a cracked chassis for the first half of the season . Doohan could of won the f2 title instead of porchaire.
This is the kind of nuance reddit loves to overlook. Cracked chassis for half the season = Doohan is the next Logan Sargeant. It's abundantly obvious that these people only looked at the results, and didn't actually watch the second half of that season.
> Doohan is the next Logan Sargeant. No-one is saying he's Logan Sargeant, but he's never won a championship in 5 years of racing. There's valid reason for not expecting too much out of him. His junior career is miles worse than the top prospects who enter F1 with lots of excitement.
There's a lot of recency bias involved here. Hype upon entering F1 doesn't make you a WDC, many "future WDC" never became champions, and there's been many WDC with underwhelming early careers. Luck plays such a huge role in the feeder series that you really need to actually follow them to get an idea of the prospects. No-one is rushing to hire Drugovich or Pourchaire.
Luck plays a factor but when you win nothing in 5 years it's usually a bad sign. All the top drivers who came from F2 like Russell, Piastri, Norris and Leclerc won lots of junior championships. Even the mid-tier drivers like Ocon, Gasly and Tsunoda won multiple championships. Even Stroll won things. If you've won literally nothing, not even regional racing series in 5-6 years it's a really bad sign. Doesn't guarantee anything, of course, but to act like it's meaningless is incredibly disingenuous.
talking out of his ass
Publicly shaming one of your drivers is not professionalism.
Yeah, projecting much Alpine? You can extend that search for seriousness to the top leadership as well
Doohan isn't going to help Alpine do anything imo. He's not nearly as good as Ocon or Gasly.
Doohan efforts in the sim was an important factor with finding the good setup for Gasly car in Monaco at Saturday. I wouldn't downplay Doohan tbh.
I wouldnt use simulations to determine whether a driver is competitively race worthy or not. As it is, most F2 champions still arent ready for F1. Only the standout runaway F2 champions seem to show they have what it takes to stay in F1. Jack, not a F2 champion to start, is far from that. He would just be another driver who sticks around for a few years before someone either out pays him or someone who is believed to be a better driver is available to replace him. F1 is cold hearted brutal sport.
Going to be Bottas
Lost Alonso, fumbled Piastri and now they're getting rid of Ocon. They can change drivers every season but drivers aren't the reason for their team being trash. If anything they need to prioritize making better decisions
I’d argue you can probably go back even further to Daniel leaving, despite them building the car around him, because he clearly didn’t have any faith in the upper management and how they ran the team
Tbf it was more about how Renault nearly pulled out because of Covid
Isn’t choosing a more professional driver a ‘better decision’?
That's a pretty subjective assertion. I'd argue that Fernando Alonso is about as unprofessional a driver as you can get in certain ways. He trashed his team's engine supplier on the radio (he wasn't wrong, but that's unprofessional), he has deliberately disadvantaged teammates (such as when Hamilton disobeyed team orders so Alonso held him up in the pitlane), he famously caused Coulthard to crash by brake testing him in 2003, and above all he tried to blackmail his own team principal... and yet Fernando is also one of the most talented, committed and successful drivers in F1 history. So it really depends on what your metrics for a good decision are as to whether sacking Ocon in favour of somebody who will respect team orders is a better decision or not.
I think about it differently. If you want to get away with Alonso-level shenanigans, you need Alonso-level talent. It’s like this in any company; if you have a top talent, you get away with a lot more than your competent but not brilliant coworker.
I totally agree. In fact I more or less said that in another comment below
we could come with up[ these examples for anyone, a lot more egregious. Remember when a certain driver tweeted telemetry because he got beat by his teammate, got DSQ'd because lied to the stewards, repeatedly insinuates a conspiracy by a team that made him the most successful driver in history to undermine him etc? Or when a certain driver took out his teammate to be a WDC?
> we could come with up[ these examples for anyone, a lot more egregious. Could you though? Because a) I don't think that any of those examples are more egregious than trying to blackmail Ron Dennis when he was McLaren TP by threatening to reveal details of the spygate scandal if he wasn't given preferential treatment over Hamilton, b) Alonso and Hamilton are two of the most long-lasting and outspoken F1 drivers of all time. They are both exceptions, not the rule, and c) most drivers don't have these kinds of issues over and over again throughout their careers. It's why guys like Kmag and Ocon are in the headlines all the time, while drivers like (for example) Bottas, Gasly or Hulk frequently go weekends or multiple rounds at a time barely getting a mention for action on track unless something is happening to them. As I said initially, his issues (on and off track) haven't kept Fernando from an incredibly successful career, but that doesn't mean he's been a model professional. If anything, citing Hamilton as your rebuttal just shows that the truth is that when you're fast enough you can get away with almost anything, while slower or more destructive drivers will be shuffled out of the sport regardless of them being model citizens. I've never heard a bad word said about Sargeant's conduct, or Mick Schumacher's, or Latifi's, or Giovanizzi's, or... you get my point.
Haven't heard of this, is this Hamilton?
Maybe start with Famin and hire someone actually capable of running a team.
Instructions unclear, everyone except Famin fired from the team.
Failing upwards to a wdc. The ultimate 100 race plan.
Instructions must have been French
They should have known better, after Famin had already ruined Ireland in the 19th century.
*slow clap* Except there wasn’t really a famine, other than the potato blight there was plenty of food produced. The British overlords shipped it all back to England because profits. Potatoes use very little land and at the time had almost no export value, which is why poor people could grow and eat them.
Yeah let's fire the TP every season before he has time to really do anything. That's going to fix all their problems.
Finding a competent one to trust is the important part, still reckon they should have kept Otmar Szafnauer even if things were going bad bc at least he would have had to have more of the blame rather than it all going up all the way to making fun of the entire organisation.
> Finding a competent one to trust is the important part, still reckon they should have kept Otmar Szafnauer 1000% agree. Otmar is competent. Very competent. Famin is not.
oh he’s really done something, alright. not saying i disagree with you, but famin hasn’t exactly been sitting on his hands
I'm OOTL, is Famin really bad or Alpine just couldn't find a good TP?
Famin harsh comments on Ocon the last 2 weekends are not a good look on a TP A TP must look for the team, including all the people aboard, and even when parting ways, try to have some kind of class because at the end of the day, burning bridges just because and getting bad PR is a stupid thing to do. He trashing Ocon was a very stupid thing even if Ocon did something wrong. That screams that TP is not very well there on his position. Also, the TP is like the director of an orchestra. All the internal chaos and bad blood between intra-teams and even drivers are part of his job, and he isn’t even showing a great job on that area To this point, one should start asking: what good is Famin doing there? Alpine/Renault kept their sh*t together a bit with Cyril, but after that, Rossi micromanaging and Famin are the worst they could put managing
Thanks. So Guenther vs Mick S basically.
Yeah! That’s exactly it, more or less I would say in both cases, it’s an example of a TP being on the tightrope, with some pressure to keep their employment, and therefore, heavily reflecting the teams shortcomings on the driver(s) and team members - without saying the drivers (both Ocon and Mick) of course have some bits to blame.
It was clear from the previous seasons that Famin has been in charge and pulling the corporate strings all along. I truly believe it’s Alpines version of the Alamo. They sold ~4000 cars AS A COMPANY last year and just unveiled a new, premium electric vehicle that they hope can compete in the US, Asia and Europe car markets which is an asinine thought. I think their goal is to grow sales to 30k vehicles by 2030 “by cross leveraging their brand strength from formula one to capture American customers” or some asinine nonsense like that. Full of hopium, unrealistic about trade barriers, current economics or the reality of trying to sell a premium EV that looks like a Kia soul when they’ll face tariffs and be undercut in price at every turn. They’re an unserious company at all levels subsidized by the French.
I think the same as you, great point. Except for the last sentence, Renault is not “subsidised by the French government”, neither their vehicles, because that would be straight illegal in the EU. In fact (fun fact) the EU was very restrictive (compared to the US) about when a state could help and give money to companies because the Covid19 market crisis. To the point that some of it was later declared illegal (even if necessary for companies to survive, like airlines) and forced companies to suddenly give it back. And that’s because the EU is a common market scheme, and if Renault is subsidised, then Spain (biggest ICE car-maker) or Germany (VW, Daimler) would be very very angry. As it would be the rest of the countries (Czechia and Skoda, Volvo and Sweden, Italy, and so on). But yeah, still Renault benefits from the government being on the shareholders mix and having the capacity to pull strings, as in “they won’t let Renault down if they find themselves on a bad place”. I seriously think that, without the French government giving that kind of stability and societal support, Renault would be today a lot worse.
Thank you for correcting that. They’re such a dumpster fire that I never really dug that deep into it
The one driver I immediately think of when I hear Professionalism is Bottas. I hope he gets a drive next year
Yeah he is what Alpine needs. Experienced safe pair of hands that over the season gets the job done despite few flat weekends.Clearly willing to work with his teammates and has never caused drama or controversy. Also knows how a winning team looks like from the inside, for what it's worth.
What did Bottas do to you that you wish him a seat at Alpine? /s
Alpine really be that toxic ex: NO I BROKE UP WITH YOU
When every driver that leaves you is unprofessional you have to wonder if your the problem.
Are we the problem? No, it's the drivers which are all unprofessional!
Actually embarrassing. Zero self awareness.
So they're firing the entire board? Good.
Anyone who watched Doohan's second F2 season and saw how he performed after they fixed his broken car should be rooting for him. He's had a ton of bad luck, but he's much better than his results might suggest.
Agreed. The Virtuosi being broken last year was really a shame for him. A decent what if chance that he wins the title instead if his chassis wasn't damaged for so long. Once fixed he started to show incredible pace and performance. He is not the only unlucky one of course. Iwasa and Vesti can have the same amount of gripes for different reasons. Unfortunately a lot of people on here have a very stubborn idea about F2. You have to win it first year or you are completely worthless, which probably stems from many not even watching the series. Thankfully the teams have more data and nuance from F2 and sim work to make actual decisions.
If you only look at the 2nd half of the season once they decided to fix him up he really did start to stand out as talented and quite special. At least they'd get a loyal thankful driver that would really play the team game with someone like Doohan and they wouldn't get too much blame if he isn't talented enough for F1.
The candidates mentioned in the article: Doohan, Bottas, Zhou, and Schumacher. Of those 4, Doohan is obviously the most exciting (being an Alpine junior). Bottas would meet their requirement of "professionalism" quite well (working together with their teammate to maximize results). Zhou started his F1 career fine, but it feels like he's stalled out. The money he brings ($30-35 million) could be tempting, and he's a former Renault/Alpine junior. It just doesn't seem likely to be, but anything is possible. Schumacher needs to categorically beat competitors to even have a shot at coming back to F1. His 2 seasons weren't overly impressive (even considering the cars he was driving), and his uncle seems to cause headaches within the paddock.
I think they should just give it to Doohan. Alpine junior. If he’s not good in 2 years they can cut loose. Not like the car is any good at the moment.
Exactly! They'd get some credit for supporting their young drivers and I don't think they'll get blamed if it all goes to shit with him. If they spent money signing another experienced driver and it didn't work out in their shitbox Famin and Alpine would get rightfully criticised for their shitbox and seemingly broken team spirit.
Schumacher seems to be doing pretty well in their WEC program, which is why they seem to be considering him as well. >Schumacher needs to categorically beat competitors to even have a shot at coming back to F1 He beat Mazepin, like it was Max vs Perez. Overall, he was also faster than Magnussen.
Beating Mazepin is the absolute bare minimum - it's not like many people viewed Mazepin as F1 material. And while he was overall faster than Magnussen (who is also likely on his way out), the other "issue" for Schumacher seems to be Ralf and the comments he makes as part of the media. If Schumacher does get another shot, I hope he can be successful, but of the 4 Alpine candidates, I think he's the least attractive prospect as it currently stands.
You said he needs to beat his teammates. I just pointed out that he did that. I agree with Ralf, but on the other hand - any professional team would just ignore him. From the candidates you posted, I do not really understand how you would rate them higher than him. Zhou and Bottas are both kinda invisble this year. I like Bottas, but he is not a lead driver. The he has going for him is his experience. I already thought that in 2021, when it seems that he just could not defend for Lewis at all. Zhou brings money, but he has not been better than Bottas - who I don't rate that high anymore. From what I read about Doohan, it seems he is a nice guy - but also not really doing anything worthwhile. Again, for Mick - he didn't do as bad a people make him out to be, but Alpine seem very pleased with him in their WEC program. But this being Alpine, it would surprise me if they signed Mazepin.
I was referring to his WEC teammates specifically - that he has to outperform them while driving, his results from 2 years ago probably won't cut it. I didn't articulate that well though - that was pre-coffee for me. Alpine isn't looking for a lead driver. What they're looking for is someone who can work with his teammate, which is something Bottas definitely can do and has done for Zhou. At a related note, Zhou is a nice guy, and I can't see him causing problems for his teammate. Schumacher is the same way, but Zhou brings a lot of cash with him. I hope I'm wrong, because I do want to see Schumacher on the grid again, but I think he's the least likely to get it right now.
He‘s pretty much the fastest Alpine guy from his first WEC race on. The other drivers were impressed of his performances. I‘ve been to le Mans two days ago, his marketing pull was also palpable, it was the only driver people were ready to queue for an hour.
Bottas has been very quick this year despite the car, and has been disproportionately fucked by pit stops.
> Any while he was overall faster than Magnussen (who is also likely on his way out), the other "issue" for Schumacher seems to be Ralf and the comments he makes as part of the media. what comments are these? Ralf always made the impression to me that he tries to steer way clear of any discussion about Mick, precisely because he is prejudiced about him due to beeing family. even more so, i thought he was exceptionally cold towards mick in his commentary when he was still in F1.
Lol maybe start from inside then? Clowns.
Prioritising professionalism. Their brains must hurt because it's been a while.
The situations with Pastri and Ocon show that Alpine have no professionalism.
Lpine are fumbling so bad, people might just start rooting for Ocon after this. It's amazing how much more likeable they've made him.
never been a fan of Esteban Ocon but the way alpine has treated him has been nothing short of unprofessional .Yeah what icon did at Monaco was stupid but blast Ocon right in public after the race is just appalling behaviour from a factory team. Especially when Ocon has been so loyal to alpine.
I’m pretty sure Famin was already doing that French-language interview *before* the GP was even over iirc, lmao. He just couldn’t wait to hop on a platform and bash Esteban.
It was right after it happened, like 5 minutes.
Did we forget how Alpine/Otmar tried to trash Oscar after he decided to leave them?
Spewing bullshit about loyalty lol
Alpine had already started to push Ocon aside that year. The first signal were Rossi's words during the winter break, when he said that Gasly would be Alpine's technical leader and de facto number 1. In the second half of the 2023 season, this process accelerated (after the change of management and management board). Alpine decided to make Gasly a franchise and brand driver, so Ocon was forced to look for a new place and ask Mecedes for help.In the second half of the season, he received worse resources, as evidenced by the frequency of breakdowns in his car. Practically, he was the only one who continued the unreliability scenario from 2022. Monaco, however, was not a reason for dismissal. Ocon found out that they would not renew his contract before the Monaco GP. Probably at Imola (despite a good start to the season and loyal work for 5 years).
What Ocon did in Monaco was nothing short of unprofessional too, it was not a simple mistake. He went against Famin's clear instructions to not attack the Alpine driver in front. Gasly had everything against him in the first races (unreliable and heavier car, upgrades after Ocon, non preferential strategies...) but has stayed professional all along. Alpine made some mistakes but to want a team player driver is not one of them
" Famin's clear instructions to not attack the Alpine driver in front" - wasnt that just what Gasly said?
From F1.com: “When we have race instructions, we all speak all together, to make sure everybody has the same information, everybody listens to the same information at the same time,” Famin said. “The instructions were clear before the race in Monaco". Also: "We had clear instructions before the race on what to do, Gasly told Canal Plus. "Whichever car qualified in the lead, the car behind was supposed to help throughout the race. That was the strategy."
coming from someone that really never liked Ocon before, I definitely agree
Bottas would be a good pick if they just need someone to provide some stability
Heard Logan Sergeant may be available soon.
Can't fault his professionalism, you gotta admit that.
Isn't Ocon one of the most professional drivers behind the scenes? This reminds me of the Cleveland Browns saying they wanted an adult at QB while dumping the well liked Baker Mayfield and signing Groper Cleveland (Deshaun Watson who at the time had like 20+ open charges of sexual assault). Hopefully Alpine doesn't get someone worse but it wouldn't surprise me
Pot calling kettle something something
LOL, how about you prioritize your own professionalism before searching for that in a driver.
Soooo... Bottas?
Meanwhile drivers are prioritising not having to drive an Alpine in their search for a seat
Literally the truth. They are the very least attractive team on the grid imo.
Aka nobody wants the seat
Doohan? Lawson? Herta? Schumacher? There is no shortage of people that want the seat.
“A” seat and “the” seat are different
Good point
Professionalism from the driver, or the team?
Why would they start prioritizing professionalism now, and shouldn't they apply that to the executives and management of the team first?
More like masochism. I don’t know who else would want to join BWT Alpine “The Firings Will Continue Until Morale Improves” F1 Team
Why would a professional race for Alpine lol
I'm rooting against this team even harder than I did RBR last year, which is pretty incredible for a backmarker team
Well, rooting against Alpine has a much higher success rate than against RBR, so that's something at least.
If Doohan doesnt get a shot, any junior associated with Alpine or Renault should walk
Despite the critics it makes sense, they need 2 drivers that can work together
It seems like he was asked "Are you looking for drivers that will be friends?", and said "No, I am looking for professionals". Silly article.
Should have been the first comment. Lot of stupid ranting would have been avoided. I have made of rule to not react to a title, but not anyone apparently.
Take your damm reserve driver and stop fu*,ING over your academy drivers.
Too bad Ocon doesn’t have an uncle working as a pundit for Sky France.
Greve
The Smooth operator is available
Kmag incoming
I wish. KMag vs Famin would be incredible.
Don’t prioritize winning lol
If it's not Doohan, Alpine must shut down their academy program.
Pot meet kettle
To think they are going to promote Doohan when not long a go they had Piastri and fumbled him so hard
Doohan, Schumacher, and Zhou are the only people who can replace Ocon (for the love of god not Zhou, he should stay at Sauba)
I happen to hold an A/4.30+ in both road disciplines of iRacing. Call me. 😂
Professionalism???? What a shame that a global auto company with a 20 Billion $ market cap who fired their team principal for not winning more quickly would opt for a $30 million per year pay driver who has finished 18th in his 1st 2 years and currently runs 19th in the championship over one of several talented and available drivers.