"Pretty much like a go-kart race" - Alpine F1 drivers discuss Jeddah fight

Alpine's Esteban Ocon has claimed the 2022 generation F1 cars are similar to go-karts in terms of racing. The Frenchman credited his entertaining battle with teammate Fernando Alonso at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last weekend to the radical new cars. Speaking to Motorsport.com following the race, he said:

“It was a lot of fun. Good racing with Lando [Norris], good racing with Fernando [Alonso], with Valtteri [Bottas]. It's a completely different philosophy now racing with these cars, it's pretty much like a go-kart race."

He added:

“And fighting with Fernando very closely, we were very close in all sessions this weekend, in qualifying, there was less than a tenth separating us. So, it's going to be close all year. But that's pushing the team performance up.”

Ocon seemed to have had the upper hand over his much-experienced teammate throughout the Saudi Arabian GP weekend and started the race two places ahead of Alonso. But during the race, Alonso came alive and challenged his teammates for P6, after the latter lost a position to Mercedes’ George Russell at the start.

Throughout the soft tire-shodden first stint, when the rest of the grid was taking it easy, the two Alpine drivers put on an entertaining battle, which oftentimes looked too close for comfort.

In a refreshing change in attitude, Alpine let their drivers battle for position, even when it was clear they were holding each other up and allowing others behind to catch up. According to Alonso, the team allowed them to race each other as long as they didn’t make contact. Speaking to Motorsport.com following the race, he said:

“We know that before we start that we can race, but never touch each other. So we never do. Of course, you need to give extra margin, but everything was fine. We battled in Bahrain already in the first stint, even though we had different strategies there. Here we had the same strategy, but for whatever reason my car felt faster this weekend in qualifying and the race, so I could overtake and pull away a little bit.”

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Valtteri Bottas “biggest threat” to Alpine in Saudi Arabia before retirement: Alonso

Fernando Alonso says Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas posed the biggest risk to Alpine in Saudi Arabia before retiring from the race with an as-yet undisclosed mechanical issue. Speaking to Motorsport.com Alonso said:

“Bottas was very fast, so we had to defend quite strong with Bottas. I felt that my car was in the window, working a little bit better today, so I had the opportunity to overtake and pull away a little bit. And the main threat as I said was Bottas. He was fast today, and it was not easy to keep him behind.”

Before retiring from the race himself with a loss of drive, Alonso displayed supreme pace that was oftentimes on par with the front runners and seemed on course for a top 5 finish. With Bottas hot on his tail, it was possible that he would have challenged Alonso in the closing stages of the race.