Alpine and Esteban Ocon can outperform an Aston Martin team led by Fernando Alonso next year, team boss Otmar Szafnauer claims.
At the start of the summer break, the two-time world champion shocked Formula 1 when he was announced as Sebastian Vettel’s replacement at Aston Martin on a two-year deal from 2023.
Alpine themselves later admitted to only learning about Alonso’s decision to leave when it was confirmed he was joining the Silverstone-based outfit by press release.
But comparing the relative potential of Alpine and Aston Martin, Szafnauer remains confident the French brand can stay ahead of its British rival.
“I know both teams very well and probably know them [Aston Martin] better than any of the staff here because I was with the other team for 12 years,” he said via Motorsport-Total.com.
“Right now, this team [Alpine] is performing at a much higher level, of course, it’s hard to predict the future, but in the near future, I’m sure the team will continue to perform at this level, if not better.
“I’m confident that we can outperform the team Fernando is going to in the time he will be there.”
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Much of that confidence comes from the potential the American chief sees in Ocon to lead Alpine, regardless of who his teammate will be.
“Esteban is a super talent,” Szafnauer declared. “I worked with him at Force India and those were the days of Sergio Perez as his teammate.
“He was as quick as Sergio and raced Sergio hard, if you remember those days, they were always together on the grid and sometimes they even came together in the races!
“And we see what Sergio is capable of [now at Red Bull].
“With Fernando too, although Fernando’s got the skill and the talent to get a lap out of the car very quickly,” he added.
“He needs three or four laps and he’s at 99%, or 99.9%, and that extra 0.1% comes with a few laps more, if you know what I mean, whereas Esteban takes a little bit more time to get the maximum out of the car.
“Ultimately, on Saturday, and then Sunday, he’s there. So he needs to learn a little bit to get there a bit faster. But we’re working with him on that.
“And thereafter, can he lead the team? For sure he’s getting better and better.
“He’s got a race win under his belt. He’s scored good points for us this year and he’ll learn more by the time we get to next year.”