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For all of its globe-trotting and high-profile recognition, the world of Formula 1 is actually pretty small. Only 20 drivers are able to compete during any one weekend, and the traveling support staff has a tendency to bounce from one role to another. The chances of ending up at the pinnacle of motorsport at the same time as your childhood enemy are slim. The chances of being teammates with that guy are even slimmer. Yet that’s exactly what happened with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
Gasly and Ocon are both 28 years old, born a few months apart, and both from small French villages north of Paris. Getting started in the karting realm, the two were inevitably going to meet—and they’d inevitably be competing against one another on everything from local tracks to the big leagues.
And for a while, they were even friends. On the Beyond the Grid podcast back in 2018, Gasly recounted that he and Ocon “used to spend so much time together, train [at] the same track, going on weekends together.
“He used to come [to my] home many times and same for myself, we went to his place.”
But in 2009, at the Bridgestone Cup—a prominent karting event with a large prize—things fell apart. Gasly attempted to overtake Ocon in the final corner in a late-race bid to secure a third-place finish, only to end up making contact. That initial wound festered, as the two young kart racers found themselves on the same grids battling for national, European, and world championships.
“And I really remember one weekend, the World Cup in 2010 in Portugal that he literally cut the track, one corner, cutting the grass and hit me in the last heat before the pre-final because I was going to start I think second or third [and I] think he didn’t really like it,” Gasly recalled on Beyond the Grid.
By that point, the friendship between the two French racers was as good as dead. No more training days. No more friendly visits. The two made peace with the fact that they’d exist in the same realm, but that was the extent of the relationship.
Heading into 2023, Alpine announced that Pierre Gasly would be joining Esteban Ocon. The French team signing two French drivers was obviously a boon for their home nation, but it came with ample stumbling blocks. Ocon and Gasly made contact in Monaco this season, and the infighting seemed to come to a head when Ocon finally signed with Haas for 2025.
But in Brazil, things changed.
After Saturday morning’s sprint race, a torrential downpour washed out Interlagos and forced qualifying to be postponed to Sunday, ahead of the race. The race, too, was moved forward in the day, as the forecast was promising still more precipitation.
Sunday’s qualifying session was punctuated by five red flags as drivers lost control on the wet track surface, and it resulted in a shaking up of the status quo. Yuki Tsunoda impressed the field by qualifying in third place, with Alpine’s Ocon fourth and Liam Lawson fifth. Top-tier stalwarts like Red Bull had drifted to the rear, and the race was sure to deliver.
It delivered chaos almost immediately: On the formation lap, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll lost control of his car, then beached himself in a gravel trap trying to drive away. The fiasco resulted in an aborted start, but front-row starters Lando Norris and George Russell didn’t get the memo and pulled away for an additional formation lap, resulting in a post-race fine.
When the green flag finally waved thirty minutes later, Max Verstappen launched an impressive recovery drive from 17th on the grid, while frontrunners Norris and Russell tried desperately to hold onto their position. But luck wasn’t on their side; both men pitted just a few laps before a red flag was waved for Franco Colapinto’s nasty crash.
Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasly comprised the top three, and they were able to change tires under red-flag conditions. When the race got back underway, Verstappen quickly disposed of Ocon—but the two Alpine teammates were able to hold off an attacking George Russell to retain their podium positions.
Though neither Ocon nor Gasly won the race, they once again shared a podium—albeit this time in F1. The team tripled its points total in the World Constructors’ Championship and knocked Haas out of the sixth place it fought hard to wrestle from VCARB.
And in the press conference after the race, as both men reflected on whether or not they were living a dream, Ocon conceded that he was “extremely happy and proud of me and Pierre.”
“A lot of flashbacks came back to my memories,” he recalled with a fond smile, “when we were racing on the wet in go-karts, when we were young, even in the snow with the slick tires.
“We were both racing together and waiting for the podium or the win to come. And today, it tastes a bit like that. Beautiful story from where we come from.”
Immediately after, Gasly weighed in.
“It’s a very personal relationship between Esteban and myself,” he said. “But we’ve been going through so much.”
Like Ocon, he reflected on the rainy—and snowy—days at the kart track, where the two young hopefuls turned lap after lap in pursuit of their dream. That work paid off, as Gasly noted, “On a day like today, I can tell you this actually made the difference, all that practice.”
“We’ve had our ups and downs. But as you said, this two-year chapter as team-mates, I think we can be very proud of the way we’ve pushed the team forward. It’s been tough, obviously, this season, but we’ve always tried to push the team in the right direction to never give up. And on a day like today, even when the car has misbehaved for the majority of the season, everyone tried to put the A-game, and it was just an historical day for the team.
“So very proud for everyone working in the team to achieve such a performance.”
There are still three races remaining in the 2024 Formula 1 season, but a chapter has closed in the aftermath of the Brazilian Grand Prix. A decades-long beef has been quashed. And somehow, Alpine has taken a double podium.
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