Alpine: Alonso and Ocon will get equal status in F1 team
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has vowed Esteban Ocon will receive equal treatment with Fernando Alonso at the rebranded Renault Formula 1 team in 2021.
Two-time world champion Alonso is coming out of retirement this year to replace McLaren-bound Daniel Ricciardo at the Enstone outfit.
Despite Alonso's credentials, Alpine has stated that the Spaniard will not get number one status in the team and that his team-mate Ocon will receive equal treatment.
"The drivers have to be as fast as possible and will clearly challenge each other," Rossi said at the launch of the team's 2021 challenger, the Alpine A521.
"That's like healthy competition and that's about it. There's no instruction and no number one driver.
"[A number one and number two contract] doesn't exist. I don't think it exists in many teams to be honest, at least not in ours."
PLUS: The mantra Ocon must follow to challenge Alonso
Ocon has said he relishes Alonso's arrival at the team and expects their partnership to run smoothly.
"I have always had a great relationship with Fernando, even when we were racing back together in '17 and '18," Ocon said.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team
Photo by: Alpine
"I always had so much respect for what Fernando has done over the years and racing with him has always been very close, but very fun and very enjoyable.
"So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to teaming up with him properly in an event.
"So far it's been a great collaboration and I expect it to be the same for the rest of the year."
Ocon faced a tough first half of the 2020 season, particularly failing to match Ricciardo in qualifying. During the second half of the campaign the Frenchman's form improved, culminating in his first-ever podium at the Sakhir Grand Prix.
Asked if Alonso would present an even greater challenge than Ricciardo, Ocon responded: "We will see. Fernando is a two-time world champion. It will be the first time that I work alongside a world champion so that's very interesting.
"I expect Fernando to be ready. He had a lot of testing last year and with his experience and all what he's done over the years, I think straight away from the first race he will be on it. So yeah, I expect him to be a tough opponent."
Related video
Bottas underwent "extreme" F1 winter training, focused on mental gains
Vettel "at peace" with himself over Ferrari F1 exit
Hamilton: "Way more" to be done to help progression from W Series
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton believes “way more” needs to be done to help ensure progression from W Series and give women more opportunities in racing.
Autosport Podcast: Ranking the top 10 Arrows F1 drivers
The Arrows Formula 1 team was a mainstay of the world championship for 24 years between 1978 and 2002, with its perennial underdog status earning widespread admiration.
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
Ferrari: F1 team orders idea discussed more outside than internally
Ferrari says the use of team orders between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz is “more discussed outside Ferrari than inside Ferrari” as it targets parity with its Formula 1 drivers.
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…
Could F1 move to a future beyond carbonfibre?
Formula 1 has ambitious goals for improving its carbon footprint, but could this include banishing its favoured composite material? PAT SYMONDS considers the alternatives to carbonfibre and what use, if any, those materials have in a Formula 1 setting