It’s no secret that there is always a sense of competition among teammates. Sometimes this competitiveness becomes sour and turns into an ugly rivalry. However, more often the competitive nature pushes both drivers to do better and becomes a win-win scenario for the team. Given the history between Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, what can alpine expect? Well, Gasly has an answer.

Gasly and Ocon have known each other since their karting days. In fact, the two Frenchmen were close friends while growing up. However, as the years passed, the pair grew apart, and it was widely reported that the duo fell apart. This gave birth to a lot of chatter about possible friction between the two ahead of Gasly’s imminent move and the reunion with Ocon.

However, according to Gasly, the chatter is just that. Speaking to Channel 4, as quoted by Motorsportweek, Gasly cleared the air to put an end to these constant rumors.

He said, “I know they like to sell this story. For me, it’s no secret that we’ve had our ups and downs in our relationship but he’s the guy I’ve known the longest, for 20 years. We grew up together and I think we’ve cleared a lot of dust since we arrived in F1. Things are going well now and I don’t see any reason why they should not go well now.”

Gasly even expressed his feelings towards the media mill churning this story. “At the end of the day, it kind of makes me laugh because the media is really focusing on this story and trying to push it,” he added.

Read More: Alpine Boss Makes Major Precaution

Safe to assume, there will be no friction between the two. At least not from the get-go. Alpine is also taking measures to ensure it stays this way.

Alpine taking precautionary measures to keep Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon from clashing

The French team is pulling out all the stops for smooth functioning within the team. One repercussion of it is restricted access to the Frenchmen’s family members as disclosed by Joe Saward on his “Green Notebook” blog.

“I am told that in an effort to keep friction to a minimum both drivers have been informed that they can have family at only two events a year, and that the two families cannot attend the same races,” he wrote.

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Keeping the families out of the feud. It will be interesting to see if these precautions will help or if the drivers will clash regardless.