Gasly and Ocon praise ‘very inspiring’ De Meo Alpine factory visit

Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon have praised the recent visit of Renault CEO Luca de Meo to the team’s Enstone factory.

Despite both drivers managing to achieve a singular podium finish, the Anglo-French squad have endured a challenging and tumultuous season on the racetrack.

With five rounds remaining, Alpine languish a lonely fifth in the Constructors’ standings, a huge 129 points behind the fourth spot it was targeting this year, held by McLaren.

The side’s struggles resulted in substantial upheaval taking place behind the scenes, which saw Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and long-serving Sporting Director Alan Permane moved aside in August. Meanwhile, Laurent Rossi also vacated his former role as Alpine CEO to take up a new position.

Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, De Meo held a speech at Alpine’s English headquarters – one which left both Gasly and Ocon in agreement that the team is on the right path.

“I was at the simulator on that day,” Gasly said when asked about the event. “And no, I think it was definitely very inspiring, keep to push the team forward and pushing for change and improvement.

“So no, I think it was very positive. And yeah, it was great to be there, all united as a team.”

Ocon added: “Yeah, I was having performance meetings on that day and obviously, yes, I attended the speech of Luca and Luca came to reaffirm and motivate everyone inside the factory.

“It was good that obviously he visited us. He replied to a lot of questions as well from everyone.

“And, yes, of course, there’s things that we need to improve and we are on the way to be doing that and I’m sure that we are going to be able to achieve it in the future.”

De Meo’s trip coincidentally arrived right after Alpine had been the subject of scrutiny for a team order call that left Gasly angered in last month’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Having encountered damage on Lap 1, Ocon had undercut his way ahead of his team-mate but was later informed to let Gasly by to let him chase down Fernando Alonso.

Amid his failure to reel in the Aston Martin, Gasly was instructed to relinquish the position to Ocon, prompting the former to vent that he didn’t “understand” the decision.

Ocon has sympathised with his countryman’s remonstrations, admitting that he would always prioritise settling positions through racing whilst acknowledging the team’s view.

“I’m always on the side of… I prefer to race,” Ocon conceded.

“It doesn’t matter what there is to gain in front; there shouldn’t be artificial racing in any way and I’m more of an old school guy on that one and I just prefer to race, doesn’t matter what the circumstance is, even if there is a podium to get in front.

“But I also understand the side of the team, which is to try and get as many points as we can which is normal. So you need to understand both.”

Ocon added that the matter was discussed internally and both drivers now firmly understand the rules of engagement when it comes to obeying orders from the team.

“Yeah, we’ve discussed it internally, which is the most important and we know where we are going from now,” he explained.

“But it’s been a similar thing a couple of years ago with Daniel [Ricciardo], as I said, with Fernando. We’ve made those switches from one side or another and the important thing for us as a team is to maximise the result that we can get, and we try and do that in that race.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get one more position so we made the switch back. But now we know where we’re going with the team and that’s the most important.”