Alpine's Bruno Famin's handling of Esteban Ocon shows a complete lack of depth

Esteban Ocon collided with his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly in the F1 Monaco GP. There has always been tension between the two drivers, since even before they started a partnership with the French squad.

Yet, what has been a major surprise is how poorly it has been handled by Alpine team principal, Bruno Famin, who erupted on Esteban Ocon in arguably the worst way possible. In his veiled threat that hinted at 'consequences' for the driver, Famin has betrayed a degree of inabilty when it comes to handling and reviving a squad that has nose-dived in his presence.

What happened?

On the first lap of the F1 Monaco GP, both Alpine drivers were part of the group tussling for positions. The two were side by side from the beginning but it all came to a head when the sequence of corners after the hairpin saw the two drivers battle it out.

Esteban Ocon lunged down the inside but unfortunately, he didn't leave any room for Pierre Gasly, who hit the rear of his teammate's car. That led to a collision and Esteban Ocon's race was done at that very moment. Gasly was able to continue and would eventually score a point in the race.

Is it anything new?

This is where things get interesting because Pierre Gasly has indirectly claimed Ocon disregarded an order by the team about the teammates fighting. Unfortunately, it's hard to understand if this was an order given in this race or if it was given in general.

From the start of the season and even in prior races in 2023, Ocon and Gasly have fiercely competed against each other. Most importantly, there hasn't been any contact made but the aggression has still been there on both drivers' parts.

What we saw in Monaco was nothing new. These two are fierce competitors and do not give an inch to the other. When that happens, collisions are bound to be the result some time or the other.

Was Esteban Ocon at fault?

A 100%! This was Esteban Ocon's fault because not only was it an opportunistic lunge, it also almost took out his teammate. There is an argument to be made here, however, considering how the race panned out.

Progress and making up ground were only going to happen at the start. There was no other point at which one could pull off overtakes. But having said that, there needs to be caution in how Ocon races against his teammate. A divebomb in Monaco was just not on the table and the blame falls squarely on Ocon.

The litany of errors in team principal's handling

Now, let's take a look at the horrible handling of the situation by Bruno Famin. It all began with the Alpine team principal's emotional rant telecasted by French broadcaster Canal+. He squarely placed the blame on Esteban Ocon and sent out what appeared to be a threat where there would be 'consequences'.

What was dumbfounding in all of this was that his rant had no sense of awareness of the situation. The incident between Ocon and Gasly was still under investigation and he not only implicated his driver, but also cost him a penalty for the next race. How sensible of a move is it to destroy your own driver's race and even the next one in Canada as a consequence by implicating him in front of the media?

There's a bigger lack of self-awareness at play here because of how not-sensible of a move it was to publicly threaten the driver that has been Alpine's benchmark the entire season.

After the race in Monaco, the Esteban Ocon vs Pierre Gasly head-to-head reads '6-2' in both qualifying and races. Out of the two drivers, Ocon has stood out and significantly so all season. The way he's got Alpine places this season just cannot be ignored and deserves praise. He has been easily one of the top 10 drivers in F1 this season and this is precisely why he's rumored to be with multiple teams after the current season.

Thus, one has to question Bruno Famin's logic here. On what basis was he threatening Esteban Ocon? Because he made a mistake? Sure, but every driver does, that's part of the sport.

Because Alpine has too many options waiting? It doesn't. Because Alpine has a prodigious talent that it is waiting to field? That's not the case, either.

How sensible is Bruno Famin to threaten a driver who has arguably been the only positive thing for them in the entire season, when there are drivers that would literally move to any team but Alpine at this stage? It's not sensible, and it shows a complete lack of depth in how anybody could do the job.

Why is it Bruno Famin's fault?

Bruno Famin took over from Otmar Szafneur for what has been almost a year now and in that time he's spent most of his energy on blaming everyone but himself. First, he took the blame away from the power unit for the car's underperformance, perhaps because he was the one who managed the Renault PU before he was promoted to a more holistic role.

Then he blamed the previous management for Alpine's failures in 2024 even though Otmar recently clarified that no work on this season's car had started by the time he left. Then the senior management of the technical unit was thrown out at the start of the season because the car proved to be a write-off.

Alpine was a podium finisher in Monaco 12 months ago and this season the team scraped a point. During all of this, both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have fought each other at the start of the race several times. It has been close, it has been intense, but that has always been the case.

At some point the team principal may need to raise his hand and admit that the two drivers have been throwing punches at each other for the entire season because maybe there should have been better terms of agreement between the two as they fight for whatever is on offer at Alpine.

At this stage, both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are looking for seats away from Alpine, and in all fairness, the prospects of the French squad have been the worst since it came back. The Ocon-Gasly line-up is the best that the French squad can hope for at this stage and if the team principal is arrogant enough about replacing his best driver with a rookie, it just goes to show how little he knows about the sport.

Alpine has turned into a sinking ship since Otmar Szafneur was fired. With Bruno Famin, the team has all but made sure it has a worse driver lineup for 2025.