Grosjean’s warning for Alpine: ‘Ego fight to be the best French driver in F1'

Alpine signed Pierre Gasly as Fernando Alonso’s replacement for F1 2023, giving the team an all-French roster.

• Enemies to friends? The truth about the Gasly-Ocon relationship

Gasly and Ocon’s rivalry stretches back to their days in karting, when the pair had fallen out.

While their relationship appears to be better now, Ocon’s tendency to race hard against his teammates, combined with the pair likely to be evenly-matched, there could be a lot of drama down at Alpine.

Grosjean, who raced for the team from 2012 and 2015 when it was known as Lotus, reckons it could “go bad” for Alpine.

“It can go bad, I’m not going to lie to you,” Grosjean said on his YouTube channel. “If each of the drivers wants to be the French driver doing the job for the French team, it can go south. But, it can go really well, too.

“They are two guys who were not best friends when they were young, but they have matured a lot. They both know what it’s like to win a race.”

Grosjean has suggested that Alpine’s top management Otmar Szafnauer and Laurent Rossi should “keep an eye” on their drivers.

“Alpine is going to have to keep an eye on the relationship between the two of them. If it starts to be an ego fight to be the best French driver on the grid in the only French team, things can go bad.

“They both have a Formula 1 win and if they fit well together and work well together, it can be a very nice and fun success story for a brand like Alpine. That’s one of my wishes.”

Alpine will launch their 2023 car on February 16.