Jacques Villeneuve feels Alpine F1 ‘will be very sad’ to not have Fernando Alonso at their disposal anymore

Jacques Villeneuve is sure that Fernando Alonso will be a 'huge loss' for Alpine, and also does not 'see a point' to the team's new all-French lineup.

Jacques Villeneuve feels Alpine F1 ‘will be very sad’ to not have Fernando Alonso at their disposal anymore

Fernando Alonso (L) | Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer (L)

Fernando Alonso has joined hands with Aston Martin, leaving behind Alpine. The decision itself had come as a bit of a shock. Not only because it was interpreted as a downgrade, but because it came out of nowhere. His announced replacement, Oscar Piastri, snubbed the French team and went to McLaren. He was replaced by Pierre Gasly, who, all credit to him, is a great driver. But Piastri and Alonso, both incredible talents from opposite ends of the age spectrum, are likely to be missed.

There were doubts on both sides of the camp. Alonso has earlier taken a few…questionable career decisions. Many wondered if Aston Martin would be the same. On the other side, at Alpine, Gasly and Esteban Ocon were often reported to have a ‘cold’ relationship, even though they insist it won’t come in the way of them working together. But despite that, there’s optimism (and a lot of talk about) at both teams, particularly with Aston Martin.

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Alonso is known to bring the best out of a car (and a team), and he is likely to continue in that same vein. There’s no doubt that he will be a big miss at Alpine. 1997 world champion, Jacques Villeneuve, agrees as much. He told PlanetF1: “I think that Alpine will be very sad to not have Alonso anymore. That’s a huge loss. He was really pushing the team forward.”

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Of course, Alonso pushing the team (and himself) would also make Ocon want to do better, and beat him. Villeneuve added: “And by doing that, he was helping Esteban as well be competitive and so on. Now, you have two French guys in a French team in an international sport. I don’t see the point.”

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Jacques Villeneuve: Fernando Alonso might ‘bring Aston Martin up’

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin made great progress through 2022. The first few races definitely could have gone better for them, and they had 0 points in the first three races. But after the summer break, driven on by a resurgent Sebastian Vettel, they had quite a few good weekends, considering the package. They have the financial backing, and even though they started rather behind with the new regulations, they may just live up to their ambitions in the upcoming seasons.

Jacques Villeneuve thinks that Fernando Alonso is likely to help in this regard. The Canadian said: “Obviously, the team, engineering, is capable of making a good car. We’ve seen flashes of speed last year in the car. So now with Alonso at the helm, it might bring the whole team up, it might bring the two cars to a level where they’re fighting for podiums every week, we just don’t know, we have to wait and see. But definitely, it should be a big help for the team.”

Alonso drove 60 laps during pre-season testing yesterday, and ended up second overall for the session. Meanwhile, the Alpine duo finished P16 and P17. Of course, these times are not representative. There is a small concern for Aston Martin, though, as they brought out the first (and only) red flag of the session. Felipe Drugovich stopped out on track early on in the session with an electronics issue. For Alonso’s and the team’s sake, this issue must not be a recurring one.

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