Formula 1

Both Ocon, Gasly will ‘be the losers’ if they Clash on Track in 2023 – Laurent Rossi

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Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

Laurent Rossi has said that both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be ‘losers’ if they crash each other out during the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season as the two Frenchman become team-mates at the BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Gasly has moved across from Scuderia AlphaTauri to replace the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team-bound Fernando Alonso to join Ocon at the Enstone-based team, and the two have openly admitted in the past they have not had the best of relationships coming through the junior formulae.

Although both have subsequently said that they are happy to work alongside each other and be professional about it, Rossi, the CEO of Alpine, says they will not tolerate any issues between Ocon and Gasly that would negatively affect the team.

“If any problems come up, they (Ocon and Gasly) will be the losers because everyone expects that and many think they are big kids,” Rossi is quoted as saying to French publication L’Equipe by PlanetF1.  “There they can show that they have transformed into mature leaders.

“At the end of the contract, they will approach 30 years [of age], they must not mess up because it is dangerous to find yourself pushed out of a team because you haven’t shown sufficient maturity. Both are aware of this and they have affirmed it to me individually and together.”

Rossi makes these remarks at the end of a tumultuous 2022 season where the working relationship between Ocon and Alonso deteriorated, with a couple of incidents affecting races, including a couple of incidents during the São Paulo Grand Prix.

“This is high-level sport and in the excitement of the moment, there will be reactions,” Rossi said. “The important thing is that it doesn’t penalise the team in terms of performance.

“As I said to them (Ocon and Alonso) this year, we let them race until the team was hurt like in Brazil (in the Sprint race). And at that point. We let them know.”

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