Ocon and Gasly in one team: it's only a matter of time before the bomb bursts

Brawl at French karting track

Once upon a time, Ocon and Gasly were good friends. They both talk about it in the Beyond the Grid podcast, but at some point things went wrong. Indeed, the two Frenchmen had to compete against each other to get to the top. Both were driven to win and that did not make for the prettiest of scenes.

Not only did the two former friends sometimes stand nose to nose, the parents of both drivers could not control their emotions at times. The two are now a lot older (both 26 years old) and already arrived in F1, but both have the dream of becoming the leader of the French team in F1.

That can only go wrong beforehand and even more so when you look at the circumstances. True, they are a lot older and possibly more mature than in their karting years, but both still show signs of not settling for a role as second fiddle.

Ocon argues with everyone

Take Ocon. He has now feuded with almost every teammate in F1. Sergio Perez, who could get along with most drivers anyway, had such a beef with Ocon at one point that the two nearly drove each other into the wall on the way to Eau Rouge. Ocon sucked the blood from under Perez's nails, leading to a major internal conflict.

Things also went wrong with Fernando Alonso at the end. Alonso was brought in as the front-runner and did show to be the better driver of the two, but was very unlucky on Sunday. Ocon, however, could not resist mentioning briefly that he had been the only driver besides Lewis Hamilton to beat Alonso in points over a season and also revealed that he did 98% of the work at Alpine. In other words, Alonso did nothing.

Gasly falls through at Red Bull

Gasly has always been the front-runner at AlphaTauri/Toro Rosso and only showed a lesser side of himself there in the last half-season. He expressed himself very negatively about the team and the car, but in this case you could still argue that he was already half checked out by his announced departure for Alpine. On a quarrel with his teammate, Gasly was not to be found.

The biggest problems we saw with Gasly only occurred at Red Bull Racing. Not only was he beaten on all fronts by his teammate Max Verstappen, he was also scorned within the team because he insisted on doing things his way. Alexander Albon was not very much faster, but Red Bull did not give the Thai an extra year at the top team for nothing, where they had had enough of the Frenchman after only six months.

Szafnauer's reputation

The team boss should also be mentioned in this list, as Otmar Szafnauer does not exactly have a good track record when it comes to keeping rivalries under control within the team. This year, things already went wrong between Alonso and Ocon at the end of the season, and Szafnauer was also the team boss at Racing Point/Force India during the time when Perez and Ocon almost drove each other into the wall.

With such a duo, a team has to set clear rules beforehand. If you let the drivers off the hook, it will cost you points as a team. It is to be hoped for Alpine that Szafnauer has learnt from the past in this respect, but with Ocon/Alonso he did stumble on the same stone for the second time.

Gasly and Ocon knew by smell that they have not had a quarrel with each other for a long time. They may well drive together as teammates in 2023. I have yet to see it. Just one strategic decision that goes against one driver could set off the bomb like that. At least it will be fun for the neutral viewer to watch that now.