Alpine was undoubtedly the best of the rest of the last season. The team registered a hop from P5 with 155 points in 2021 to P4 with 173 points in 2022, getting ahead of its closest rival, McLaren. And as if things weren’t heated between them already, the Piastri fiasco happened. And the fire just keeps piling up for the team as their former confidante Fernando Alonso has joined the opposition forces to strike, or rather betray them.

And while Oscar Piastri’s betrayal came in 2022 itself, Fernando Alonso, who left the team quietly and on what appeared to be good terms, launched an attack recently as he seems to have found his place at Aston Martin. In his statement recently, the Spaniard targeted his former squad, saying that they were “happy to finish fourth,” not the first time he has targeted his former team. And this prompted another war of words, with Esteban Ocon registering his rebuttal most recently.

Making his and the team’s intentions and goals for the season clear, Ocon attacked Alonso, as quoted by RaceFans, saying, “Yes, as a target itself, it can sound similar to say we want to finish fourth, but the gap from fourth to third is huge at the moment,” he said, acknowledging the 300-point gap between P3 Mercedes and itself.

“Trying to [go from] top-five finishes into podium territories, that’s completely different. So obviously it’s a very high target that we’re setting ourselves, continuing the regulations.”

Keeping their targets realistic and targeting Alonso in the undertones for being overambitious with Aston Martin, Ocon added, “But we have to set ourselves that target. We are very ambitious, we are competitors. That’s what we want to achieve. In Formula 1, anything can happen and we hope there’s going to be surprises.”

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Alpine has made strides, but a major challenge for them would be to resolve the reliability issues. It has drivers who are young and competitive with one another, but keeping the goals realistic appears to be beneficial to them.

Otmar attacks Fernando Alonso for the remark

Otmar Szafnauer has come out of his shell and has been very vocal about all things involving the team. Whether it was against McLaren for stealing Oscar Piastri or, more recently, against his own former driver, Fernando Alonso.

The team principal commented on Alonso’s remark, as quoted by the Mirror, saying, “He never raised it [at Alpine]. When we finished fourth, if we look back, he was as happy as everybody else. He was part of the team. I don’t think it’s shameful to say ‘hey, we’ve done it, let’s celebrate'”

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Alpine’s target is clear. Reduce the points to three and try for podiums. With Gasly and Ocon both having won the races while being the underdogs, the spirit must run high. But Alonso’s experience would be thoroughly missed as well.