The rumor is going around that Alpine might take Esteban Ocon out of the car for the Canadian Grand Prix and instead put their reserve driver in. All of that because of the incident during the race in Monaco. It seems strange, considering drivers have been punished much less for far worse incidents. Is this actually a good idea?
To get that last question out of the way immediately: no. No it is not.
So then why might Alpine consider doing it? Well, the simplest answer would be: because they’re stupid.
I’m inclined to believe this simple answer. I mean, this is Alpine we’re talking about. When there’s a decision to be made, you can usually count on them making the wrong one. However even then, I’m not so sure they are actually going to go through with this decision since I hold them in a bit higher regard than that.
What it's all about
Let’s rewind the clock back to the Monaco GP last weekend. Esteban Ocon went for a lunge on the first lap of the race while his teammate Pierre Gasly was trying to overtake Alex Albon. In doing so, Ocon not only blocked off Gasly from continuing his attacks on Albon, he also crashed into Gasly and sent himself flying up. Remarkably, Gasly was able to continue without any damage, but Ocon was out of the race.
It’s the first rule of racing: never crash into your teammate. Ocon took to social media after the race and admitted he was at fault. But before that, while the race was still going on, Alpine team principal Bruno Famin gave an interview about it to French broadcaster Canal+ and had some stern words: “It’s sad, this kind of incident. It’s exactly what we didn’t want to see. And there will be appropriate consequences.”
Now, that line from Famin is basically what this all comes down to. Because the translation I gave is one of many ways of translating his quote (long live the French language).
Today’s incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologise to the team on this one. Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today.
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) May 26, 2024
Because you can also interpret it as “he will face repercussions for this” or “we will make an important decision”. Translations were flying around during the race about what he actually meant, though of course the team has remained silent on that. It gave rise to speculation that Ocon might be benched during the next race and instead be replaced by Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan. I’d dismiss that as sensationalist thinking, but reputable outlets have now stated that their sources confirm that this is something Alpine might actually consider.
Is this actually happening?
Look, I don’t think highly of Bruno Famin (hell, I wrote an entire article about how he should be fired). But even I don’t think he’s stupid enough to actually bench one of his drivers over a minor incident like this. Famin has enough insight in the bigger picture to realize that this would not only be detrimental to the relationship within the team, but also set the team back in terms of performance. Whether you like him or not, it’s hard to deny that Ocon is a decent enough driver. He’s gotten podiums, he’s gotten a win, he’s comfortable enough in that team to get it into a points scoring position. There’s no guarantee that his stand-in could do the same.
There’s really only one reason I can see for this to actually happen, but even then Alpine would have to be really, really petty and extremely unlikely. If Ocon is already in advanced talks with different teams and Alpine feels there’s a high chance he’ll leave the team, they might feel like it’s worth it to sideline him and instead have Doohan drive a few races. Maybe they’ll even have Doohan take over halfway through the season to prepare him properly for next year as a full-time driver. But again: that’ll completely destroy the relationship with Ocon and it massively undermines your credibility as an organization. What reason would drivers have to believe you have their back if you can bench or sideline Ocon as easily as that? That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Gasly or Doohan either.
Honestly, it’s the sort of thing you’d expect from the team twenty years ago, back when Flavio Briatore was still involved in the team.
Wait a minute….