Alpine crisis: if Gasly and Ocon escape, Martins and Doohan will be ready

Crisis on and off the track

The start of the 2024 season is proving to be a real sporting nightmare for theAlpine, always out of the points in the first four races and with a complex internal crisis that has continued uninterruptedly since the last world championship. Among the numerous changes that have occurred at management level, characterized by abrupt resignations, the current Team Principal Bruno Famin he now finds himself managing one of the teams most in difficulty on the starting grid, if not even the one that presents the greatest complexities of all.

Four GPs, zero points

A collapse in results which obviously also involves the pilots, who find themselves at the wheel of an A524 that struggles to reach the top-10 both in qualifying and in the race, thus finding themselves on the margins of the world championship standings without any points gained. To make matters worse, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly they are two of the numerous pilots found in contract expiry at the end of this year, which is why Famin is looking to the future.

'Thanks' to the pilots

The Frenchman, in an interview given to F1.com, said he was happy and grateful for his two compatriots for the professionalism demonstrated on and off the track, although he considered himself ready to focus on certain replacements if their experiences with the Alpine were to end at the end of 2024: “We are satisfied with our drivers and they are satisfied with us – commented – we are talking to them regularly. Let's see what we can do in the future. There are ups and downs, we are in a downward phase but we have an ambitious project with a long-term vision. We have good prospects for the 2026 project – we are a manufacturer and we are developing the PU – which is on track, we can optimize everything. We have a project that doesn't need to convince them to stay. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. We are in a difficult position. It's not the start to the season we wanted and I appreciate their constructive attitude towards the team, not only in interviews with journalists but also internally. When trying to find solutions for the car, both are very helpful.”

Possible substitutes

In the event that Ocon and Gasly do not renew with Alpine for 2025, Famin is already identifying options for the next drivers, also including the young talents of the Alpine Academy: “We are also evaluating the market and we also have our own Academy where we are developing talents for tomorrow or the future – he continued – we have Jack Doohanwhich is our reserve, and Victor Martins in F2. We have a wide margin of possibility. We are happy with Esteban and Pierre, but we are ready to react if something were to happen. That's all. We're not in a rush right now, to be honest. We have other problems to solve, other things to improve and we are in no hurry. We are ready, we are prepared, but we are not in a hurry.”