The atmosphere at the Alpine F1 Team must be fractious to say the least, after Fernando Alonso shocked the French side by announcing he’d be joining the Aston Martin F1 Team next season.
It appears that tensions may have already been brewing at the team prior to his announcement, after footage of Esteban Ocon and Alonso from the recent Hungarian Grand Prix has been released.
The pair have been known for battling each other hard before, as seen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the start of the season.
Whilst their duels on occasion appear over the limit, they both praise one another after the race for their close but fair racing.
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Alonso has also spoken about not having an issue with his team-mate; however, Ocon appears to have crossed the line with Alonso at the Hungaroring.
Despite the double World Champion insisting after the race that there was “no need for talks” with Ocon, the Spaniard was furious with the French driver during the GP prior to the summer break.
A youtuber has since put a video together highlighting how Ocon was the “worst team-mate” at the Hungaroring, with some of the onboards showing just how excessive some of the Frenchman’s antics were.
Alonso and Ocon actually have a good history together at the circuit, with the 41-year-old being the best team-mate ever to the Frenchman at the same circuit last year.
Alonso’s unbelievable defending from Sir Lewis Hamilton arguably gave Ocon his first victory in F1; however, the 25-year-old appeared to have forgotten all about this as soon as this season’s race got underway.
The Alpine pair locked out the third row of the grid for the race, with Ocon ahead of Alonso.
When the lights went out, the onboard shows Ocon looking at Alonso in his right-mirror, before driving across the circuit towards the pit-wall.
It shows Ocon cutting across the front of Alonso not once, but twice, with the Frenchman being completely oblivious of Hamilton going past both on the left-side of the circuit.
It meant both Alonso and Ocon lost a place before they’d even reached Turn 1, with Ocon being forced into taking a defensive line into the corner as a result of his car’s positioning.
Alonso’s onboard showed just how drastic Ocon’s change of direction was, with it almost being a replica of Michael Schumacher’s and Rubens Barrichello’s incident in 2010, where the Brazilian was squeezed against the wall.
The 2005 and 2006 World Champion could be heard having to suddenly lift off the throttle, due to his team-mate’s unnecessary aggression.
The duo was at it again on Lap 24, this team at Turn 2.
Ocon, who had just come out of the pits on cold hard tyres, had Alonso and Ricciardo on his gearbox.
His team-mate’s tires were already up to temperature, giving him superior grip out of the first corner; this saw Alonso get half a car’s length ahead of Ocon on the outside.
However, the Frenchman refused to relinquish the place and braked later than usual, blocking Alonso from cutting underneath him.
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This left the inside of the corner completely open for Ricciardo to gain two places and drop the Alpine duo further back.
In the end, Ocon finished behind Alonso in the ninth, whilst the Spanish driver finished eighth.
Perhaps it could’ve been even better for both; had the incidents not happened, it’ll be interesting to see how the team deals with the duo in the second half of the season.
