F1 team with two race-winning drivers is now ‘internally exploding’

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Formula 1 expert Gary Anderson has offered a damning verdict on the current crisis at Alpine.

The Enstone outfit are in a state of dysfunction on and off the race track at the moment.

And Anderson, speaking on The Race F1 Tech Show, argued that the team was feeling the effects of the instability.

Alpine began the season in Bahrain as F1’s slowest team over a single lap.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, both of whom have won a Grand Prix, locked out the back row of the grid.

There was a marginal improvement in Jeddah as they each climbed a couple of places, though Zhou Guanyu’s failure to set a lap time for Sauber aided them.

Gasly would subsequently retire from the race on the first lap with gearbox issues, while Ocon could only manage 13th.

Off the track, there was a raft of fresh departures between the two events.

Technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer both resigned, while advisor Bob Bell jumped ship to Aston Martin.

The exodus began at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, when the team made the shock decision to sack team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane.

Chief technical officer Pat Fry departed for Williams at the same time.

Bruno Famin, who had been serving as the interim team boss, took on the role permanently ahead of the start of the season.

Gary Anderson says Alpine seem to be losing ‘everybody’

Anderson noted that many of the people who have left Alpine have come from ‘the top end of the company’.

He gets the sense from the outside that they’re ‘internally exploding’ after they dropped to the back of the grid.

They had finished sixth in last year’s championship with 120 points, having scored two podiums.

He said: “On the other end of the scale, you’ve got Alpine, who you could say are internally exploding.

“They could have shut the factory down and less people would have left than have done over the last little while!

“Everybody seems to be going out the door, especially at the top end of the company, all the technical people and such – one way or another, whether they’re being got rid of, or [they’ve] just walked out.”

Will Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly leave?

Inevitably, attention will turn to the future of Alpine’s two drivers, both of whom are out of contract at the end of the season.

This is only Gasly’s second year with the team after he joined from AlphaTauri, while Ocon is beginning his fifth, having joined when they were still known as Renault.

Gasly admitted in Saudi Arabia that it’s currently a ‘very difficult time’ for everybody involved.

Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft suspects that he and Ocon may look for a way out ahead of 2025.

With more than half the grid approaching the end of their deals, they know there will be plenty of opportunities.

Candidates to replace the French duo include Jack Doohan, already on their books as a reserve, and Oliver Bearman, who could arrive on an effective ‘loan’ from Ferrari.