Cock-a-doodle Doo !
Thirty years since Formula 1 hadn't seen that.
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will form a duo of 100% French drivers for the Renault Alpine firm during the 2023 F1 season which begins on Sunday March 5 in Bahrain.
The duo formed by the last two French winners of a Grand Prix promises to sparkle.
The two men have known each other since their childhood in Normandy and the karting tracks, but have always had a complicated relationship, tinged with rivalry.
"There was already very little chance that we would arrive in Formula 1 and that we are now in the same team, one of the greatest teams that exists, it is a great chance for us", savored Esteban Ocon during a joint interview with AFP with his compatriot in early December.
And to promise: "There is a beautiful story to write together to climb to the highest".
A 100% Norman trio
A great story that seemed obvious to Renault Alpine when looking for a teammate in Esteban Ocon.
For the Norman brand, born in Dieppe on the shores of the Channel, the solution has been found while another Norman, Pierre Gasly, has been dazzling F1 with his talent for several seasons.
With regard to his new duo, Otmar Szafnauer, boss of the Alpine team, is full of praise: "If they are there, it is because they are young, very experienced, fast and have won each a Grand Prix, so they know how to win".
Indeed, the two men multiply the points in common.
They were born in 1996 at seven months and 50 km apart in Normandy.
They are also the last two French winners of a Grand Prix: in Monza (Italy) for Pierre Gasly in 2020, in Budapest (Hungary) for Esteban Ocon in 2021. Their experience in the queen automobile discipline is also similar: 103 Grand Prix disputed for the first, 106 for the second.
Both drivers are used to grabbing points behind the behemoths Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
Perfect for Renault, which hopes to be able to compete with them within 100 races.
The average of the places in qualification of the two Normans shows that they are also used to starting neck and neck: 10.98 for Gasly, 11.25 for Ocon.
To believe that the two kids from Haute-Normandie are destined to follow each other as they already did in karting, on the Anneville-Ambourville circuit, near Rouen.
It was even in an Esteban kart that Pierre did his first laps, as the two drivers like to tell.
Their parents sympathize quickly around the devouring passion of their offspring.
Here again, an anecdote often comes up: the dads, Laurent and Jean-Jacques, tinkering with their sons' go-karts in the snow because they were the only ones crazy enough to go racing in this weather.
How does it feel to come back here?
"We used to come here for years. It's our first years of training competitions. I think we've done thousands of laps on this track. That's where we really started.
📸 @lequipe #F1 #PG10 pic.twitter.com/KXeEbnEb9c
— Pierre Gasly Fan Page Fr (@PG10_FanactuFr) March 1, 2023
The inevitable estrangement?
But the bromance does not last.
In an environment as selective as F1 where there is only room for 20 drivers each year, tensions quickly arise, especially since money is the sinews of war for a career.
The two kids were only 13 when the recruitment of Pierre Gasly by the French Motor Sports Federation (FFSA) crystallized the resentment between the Gasly family and Ocon.
The latter accuse the former of having benefited from favoritism.
"The Gaslys probably had more codes to attract sponsors," a former FFSA official analyzes a posteriori to AFP.
It must be said that the gap is also social between the two families: on the one hand, the Gaslys of Bois-Guillaume, a bourgeois district of Rouen, heads of small businesses.
On the other, the Ocons, mechanics in Beaubray, a tiny village in the Eure.
Normandy of the cities against Normandy of the fields.
Gasly and Ocon, the future teammates at Alpine?
🇬🇧
What do you think?
👀 pic.twitter.com/hEJtFNrOZq
— Culture F1 (@Culture__F1) August 30, 2022
Despite the lack of support from the Federation, Esteban Ocon bounced back quickly and joined Gravity, a management structure for young drivers who took him under his wing at the age of 14.
The two young drivers each follow their own path: spotted by F1 teams, Gasly joined the Red Bull sector at the end of 2013, Ocon joined Mercedes in 2015.
The two Normans also share a far from linear trajectory in the world of motor racing.
Pierre Gasly waited a long time to have his chance in the queen category, even having to go into exile for a year in Super Formula in Japan for the 2017 season. He finally made his way to Toro Rosso – which became Alpha-Tauri – , Red Bull's satellite team.
His promotion in the parent team is going badly, for lack of results.
Esteban Ocon made his F1 debut in 2016 with Manor Racing and then spent two years with Force India.
But his career came to a screeching halt when the team was bought by Racing Point, which preferred Lance Stroll, the owner's son.
He must be chomping at the bit for a year as a Mercedes reserve driver before joining Renault.
Fresh relationships
Finding themselves in competition on the circuits does not calm relations between the false Norman brothers.
The spikes are distilled, more or less frontally.
For the front, the radio communication of the Austrian Grand Prix tests remains in the memories: "What a p... idiot! It's always the same story with him", exclaimed Gasly, embarrassed by Ocon.
But it should be noted that in a sport where conflicts between pilots often lead to spectacular collisions, this has never happened between the two Normans.
For subtle vexations, the examples are legion.
Gasly fans remember that Ocon was one of the few not to congratulate their champion after his victory at Monza.
“He did it in private”, defuses “Petit Pierre”.
It is therefore also in private that Gasly will congratulate his ex-friend after his own triumph in Budapest.
When replacing Fernando Alonso at Renault, Esteban Ocon was not a supporter of Pierre Gasly: “I told the bosses that my preference would go to Mick Schumacher.
[… ], he's a good friend of mine”, explained the Renault driver.
Pierre Gasly is closer to the quartet Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and George Russel.
Under these conditions, the pair remains discreet today about their personal relationship since the announcement, in September, of the signing of Gasly.
If these last few weeks "have been intense", recognizes Ocon, "everything is going well", he assures.
Same story on the side of their management: "Their collaboration has been faultless so far", welcomes Otmar Szafnauer.
"They are both very professional and want the best for the team."
Their rivalry on the track could even, according to Ocon, be beneficial: "It would be good if we got away with it during the season and could make the car 'perform' as well as possible".
"This is how we will raise the level of the team," he told AFP.
It remains to be seen whether these beautiful language elements will hold up to real-world conditions.
In the race, there are often no more teammates, no more friends and given the past and the liabilities between Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the ingredients seem to be in place to make the cabbage for the future season of the documentary series of Netflix "Drive to Survive".
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