Despite encouraging signs at the beginning of the year Alpine is having a tough time, currently on track to fall well short of the targets it had set. But as Esteban Ocon reveals, there’s been plenty happening off-track at Enstone with the aim of turning the performance around quickly…
WORDS ROBERT HOLMES PORTRAIT ALPINE
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Alpine has secured a new investment from a group which includes Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds. How exciting is that?
I think it’s fantastic. I was extremely lucky to be able to chat with Ryan, we exchanged a couple of WhatsApp [messages]. He told me I was invited to the set in London for the Deadpool [3] movie. So I’m definitely going to be going! And he also said he was very much looking forward to learning from our world, seeing how things work. I’m a massive comics and Marvel fan in general, and a massive Deadpool fan. And he’s just someone who is really inspiring in what he does. Also outside of his acting world, I think he’s an extremely talented businessman as well.
One of the benefits of this deal, obviously, is that it comes with an injection of money. Laurent Rossi said some of that will be invested in Enstone, in the facilities. Where do you think that money needs to be spent? What needs to be added to help turn a good team into a winning team?
We know. I’m not going to go into details, but we know where that needs to go. We want to take the team up there to be fighting for podiums, for wins as soon as possible. That’s my aim, as quickly as possible. I’m not here to waste time.
When Alpine first came to F1 a couple of years ago, it was a very small French brand. And now it’s growing and growing. Does it now make more sense seeing that brand in F1, and are you excited to be part of it?
Super-excited to be part of the brand. I never thought it was a small brand, because I knew how big the group is. But also, you know, how many Alpine cars you see on the road nowadays, since Alpine has been in F1, it’s expanded massively. There’s a big plan to introduce a lot of different models. I’m a big fan of road cars in general. And there are some very interesting things coming as well. I’m very involved in the project, not only in F1 but also on the road car side. And I feel extremely lucky to be part of that as we’re developing and moving forwards.
Are you working on road car development?
It’s always been my dream to be working so closely with a manufacturer, not only the racing side, but also on the road car side. It’s exciting to see how much they’re listening to me at the moment when they do things for future road car
