From the Editor’s Desk – February 2023 – Do Alpine Renault Now Have the Parts For, if Not Revolution, The French Evolution?

I had to do a recount on that stat, but yes, 2023 will be the 8th season since ‘Team Enstone’ took down the Lotus badges and returned to their French routes and the warm embrace of Renault.

Despite the significant investment that came from it, taking the team back to the 4th or 5th best team in all of the last five years, the general feeling among F1 circles has constantly been, “Oh, yes, Renault are still there, quietly heading up the midfield, let's move onto someone more exciting.” If there was one word to describe the (still) works Renault team, it would be ‘mediocre.’

Now, after the last two years of the lotus era when they came 8th and 6th, many, especially those working at Enstone, might be very thankful for this mediocrity. Average, consistent, safe progress and stability is a better environment than they had a decade ago. But, to a fan, I would argue that it's not enough, and as a works team, the nowadays badged ‘Alpine’ team, should be doing a lot more than scrapping with privateers such as McLaren and scoring only 22.7% of the points of Championship winning team, Red Bull.

There have been reasons for it. Yes, much like the team said when they bought Lotus in 2016, it will take time to build up and upgrade where the team had fallen behind in the previous years. Yes, the engine has been playing catch up with an extremely dominant Mercedes power unit which was faster, easier to drive, and more reliable than the engine and ERS unit Renault had developed. Yes, it has taken time for the top brass and operational staff to be hired and have an impact, which has at least removed some of the slow, committee-like decision process which Renault had at the start. But I think the last major reason… is the driver choice.

Now, I could point at two drivers specifically here, but I won’t, because it was a team choice to pick these individuals who were known for looking out for themselves at the expense of their teammates, or their team. But, I believe, for a group which is still building up to get to a launch pad to break into the top echelon of the very tiered sport which is Formula 1, you need both sides of the garage to pull for each other as a single unit, and I think with Pierre Gasly joining Alpine in 2023, they have a chance of doing that.

Let me explain.

Gasly, is a top-class driver, in my opinion. I would go as high as to say his talent is top 5 on the grid. But he is only able to unleash this ability when he feels that he has a team and environment which is working as a smaller, tighter group, pushing for a collective goal. Now, at 27, Gasly is starting his sixth full season, is a race winner, has seen both the top and bottom of the grid and knows how to effectively feedback to his engineers to help push a car on.

His teammate is Esteban Ocon, aged 26, also in his sixth full season in 2023, also a race winner, and also French, but far, far more under the radar in terms of career highs and lows than Gasly. Ocon has been at Renault for three years and has become consistent, finally getting rid of his tendency to crash into his teammates, and bringing home solid points. He and Gasly went down differing parallel ladders to get to F1, but both were close friends, along with Charles Leclerc, back when they were teenagers in karting, which I think is key.

Yes, the media, particularly Sky Sports, have whipped up the small story that they had a falling out when battling on track, but this was more than ten years ago, and both of them have been through tough life events, as well as career triumphs together which almost certainly will have healed any wounds caused from so long ago.

Why I think Gasly and Ocon will be able to be the line-up Renault need is because they won't come into this new partnership measuring themselves up against each other, looking to get one over on the other. Ocon did not do that against Alonso, he just drove the car, was consistent, and beat him over a season, and Gasly does almost all his talking on the track and celebrates as a team player. I think this combination of Ocon’s consistency, paired with Gasly’s possibly more natural, if maybe more emotionally erratic, speed, will allow both to share Alpine’s attention, making for a more united unit, able to focus on the car, and push up to Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, as a works operation.

But Alpine DO need to deliver that class of car for any of their dreams to come to fruition. Over winter testing the new Alpine A523 has at least looked reliable, possibly hinting that Renault has been hard at work with the power unit over the last few months. Speculation has also been rising that the team haven’t shown their ultimate pace, with no running on the softer compound tyres and an upgrade package already coming for the first race. This gives an aura of confidence which I hope will allow them to grab a clear 4th place this season. I almost expect both Gasly and Ocon to make podium appearances in 2023 if the other works cars start over-focussing on each other. Time will tell.

Let’s see in Bahrain.