Why F1's most broken driver line-up can't be saved

It happened before it inevitably happens again and that means there's only one way for F1's

most

unsustainable

driver

line

up to get out of here: it has to end. Alpine duo Waring and Pierre Gazley had a dramatic collision at the Monaco Grand Prix which sparked outrage from team principal Bruno. The player who threatened the

most

consequences for Okon, who was to blame, is not the first time they have clashed as teammates and unless Alpine punishes Aon so severely that he never drives for the team again, there is a good chance that it is not the last.

We don't expect an early and permanent end to Aon's Alpine career as a result of this, although as we record this video we can't completely rule out him being benched for a race while Alpine weighs further punishments leaving Okon on the side

line

s and on the sidelines. Fielding reserve pilot Jack Duan. who is a candidate for an Alpine seat in 2025 would be a harsh but very interesting way to teach Aon a lesson and the fact that here and now it cannot be ruled out because it is not an idle threat tells you how seriously Alpine is taking this first The onslaught ended with his car being thrown into the air and caused his retirement from the Grand Prix and could have done the same to Gazley as well, although fortunately Gazley was able to continue racing with repairs under the red flag and eventually scored a rare point for the team in 10 , but even after the race he was still shocked by what he called an unnecessary attack, given the circumstances it could have been ruled out as no harm, no fault, but Monaco was not an isolated incident and Alpine's furious response is not a reaction exaggerated to a crash.

It is what represents that small individual disputes cannot be put aside for the good of the team. The only way to solve that long-term is for a

driver

to leave and it seems pretty clear which direction that's going. Alpine is believed to have an option. with gazl's services for 2025 and aons expected to leave at the end of the season, his departure will not be a direct reaction to what happened in Monaco, but it is obviously related to the circumstances that made what happened possible and, frankly , this pair of teammates should Alpine have never been allowed to take a big risk in pairing Okon and Gazley in the first place, given long-standing tensions between them dating back to their carting days and they were initially friends which soon changed, as Gazley confirmed in 2018, attributing this.

For him to start talking on the court, all the details of their fight are lost over time, but it is well known that it was not only the incidents on the court that fueled their fight, but also the things that happened outside the court. clue. and that's fine, there's no obligation for the drivers to be friends and they've both always been quick to point out their respect for each other's abilities, but what that illustrates is that the problems in their relationship are deep-rooted, it wasn't just a case of a fight or an incident that can be easily left out, there is a true story, Alpine was well aware of this when they signed Gazley for 2023 as a partner of Okon, who had joined the team and his Runner boys in 2020, the problem is that Alpine didn't have much of a choice and that is until their own fortuitous contract agreements around the summer of 2022, when Fernando Solono told Alpine that he was making a surprise move to Aston Martin for 2023, the team had to act quickly, fortunately, had a ready-made replacement in Oscar Piastri, whom it originally planned to place at Williams for two years.

Alonso's decision to leave ruined Alpine's plan, so it confirmed that Piastri would race for the team in 2023, although at the time he knew that his supposed contract with Piastri was in dispute, which of course led to Pastry's famous tweet about the team's announcements. Alpine had so botched its contractual arrangements with pastry manager Mark Weber that Weber orchestrated a move to McLaren and what this whole saga between Alonzo and Piastri boiled down to is that Alpine was left without a driver for 2023, so it came to A deal with Red Bull would free Gazley, who was under contract to drive for what was then called Alpha, which meant a significant payment to Red Bull and gave Gazley a well-paying contract that would keep him on the team for at least two years with some kind of option beyond that.

The risk of combining gazley with oon was made clear by the attempts made at every opportunity to emphasize how problematic this was, none of which were very convincing and added to the mix was the fact that in Aon Alpine it already had a pilot with a track record of antagonistic relationships with teammates, as demonstrated alongside Sergio Pérez at Force India and with Alonzo at Alpine, gave Alpine two proven F1 drivers, but it was not the perfect recipe for the INT Harmony team and it was all a consequence from Alpine itself. Mistakes it took Gazl and Aon three races to collide with each other, which occurred on the final restart of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix.

Gazley took the restart fifth but went wide at the first corner, rejoined but lost momentum and drifted onto Okon. who was on the outside of them coming out of the turn which put both into the wall, costing the team big points and causing massive damage to both cars. Gazan Oon clearly disagreed on who was to blame, but an all-out Civil War was averted with both of them on their best behavior from the start, generally avoiding a repeat of those flashpoints in 2023, however, they were fighting an intense war for supremacy with both determined to establish themselves as leaders of the Alpine team and, although they were evenly matched throughout the season, the momentum swung in Gazi's favor.

In the second half of the year it was thanks to him working hard to modify the way the team worked with him and becoming more familiar with a car that was very different to the one he had in Alatar, while it is fair to say that Gazy did not. He doesn't have the widest window of car features in terms of his preferences, with a predictable rear end that gives him the ability to attack corners with the brakes and turn in positively. He can be as fast as anyone at the end of the year. He willing to subtly twist the knife by telling f1's Beyond The Grid podcast that he had to personally handle interactions with Okon to prevent what he called an unhealthy rivalry from developing.

For his part, Okon downplayed such issues in his public statements and always emphasized that he was working hard for the benefit of the team, but in 2024, even though Aon had a clear advantage in the early stages of this season, as the Alpine's problems with their cars began to appear, it became clear long before Monaco that Alpine was looking to replace the out. of the okon contract and okon's own public message changed noticeably in the previous race, he had previously talked about his Focus being at Alpine and while he was still saying that, he was suddenly talking about the need to get a new deal somewhere as soon as possible.

As soon as possible, your management and remember that you are part of the group of Mercedes wolves. Toto has long been talking to other teams, including Williams. He stressed that he did not want a repeat of the 2019 sideline season after new Racing Point team owner Lawrence St. sidelined him in favor of Sun. Lance, so perhaps it's no surprise that he's incentivized to attack and run himself in Miami. The two drivers had what Gazley called a pretty intense battle that remained on the right side of the line despite complaints. However, Okon did not give him enough space.

In Monaco everything overflowed. Okon's move was, without a doubt, that of a driver who sought his own interests above those of the team, hence Alpine's reaction. The only positive side to all of this is that managing Oon and Gazley isn't going to be a problem. The team has much longer to worry about as the F1 Silly Season has developed. Okon has been repeatedly linked with a move to one of the Williams or the Audi Saber project, while Gazley has not and when we asked Gazley at the start of the Monaco weekend about his place. in the driver market and if you were looking at what options there might be your response in kg suggested you knew it wasn't going anywhere so all expectations are that this will be a gazley plus one combination in 2025 and that should be The best if Gazley is perceived as the driver with the most potential and a contract option for 2025, then getting rid of Okon gives Alpine the end of this internal tension they are looking for and allows Okon to look for another opportunity.

After five seasons with the team, Okon is a very successful driver. well on sub-par machinery this year and is still the man who took the first win for the revived Runo Works team back in 2021 in Hungary, but his approach isn't going to change and Alpine has a growing desire to prevent these two from being together for longer. Monaco only underlined that since it realized Alpine's biggest fear, one that had been discussed earlier that morning, Gazley effectively accused Aon of breaking a pre-race agreement to prioritize the car being qualified ahead in the race and avoid jeopardizing some rare points.

In ending such an incident, he referred to clear instructions issued before the race that also explain why Okon was remorseful for what happened and then accepted the blame with a social media post and the way Alpine team principal, Bruno Faman, reacted so emotionally in the heat of the moment. he suggests that he agreed with Gaz's version of events that Okon did exactly what he was told not to do. F still hasn't adequately explained that in the French Race TV interview in which he put the blame entirely on Okon and threatened consequences, but that's it. I really have to say, barring a huge public reaction, as we mentioned right at the beginning of this video, handing Doan, who is being given extensive testing mileage in the 2022 Alpine car this year, a Real world audition at the Canadian Grand Prix would be hell. of a message, but perhaps there will be more subtle internal retaliation that is deemed more appropriate, whatever the short-term consequences, there is only a long-term perspective.

This pair of teammates won't be long on the grid. The tension is too much, the fear is realized too often and the consequences are too great; surely there is no way this will continue until 2025.