Driver Profile: Alonso and Vettel (Alpine)

Alpine made their debut this season after a Renault rebrand saw the new name come in to promote their sports car brand. Based in Oxfordshire, the team entity have a long history in F1. They started competing in 1981 as Toleman who were then purchased by and renamed to Benetton, with drivers including Michael Schumacher. Renault purchased the team for the first time in 2000 with a name change to Renault F1 for the 2002 season. The team won the 2005 and 2006 Drivers' and Constructors' Championship with Fernando Alonso as a driver. In 2011, Lotus came on board as a sponsor with a rebrand to become Lotus Renault. Lotus then took over between 2012 and 2015, racing as Lotus, with Renault coming back on board to own the team from 2015. During the 2020 season, it was announced there would be another rebrand to the Alpine team as we know it today.

Fernando Alonso #14

Fernando Alonso is a Spanish two time World Champion with 315 race starts to his name; the 39-year-old is the oldest driver on the grid. The driver began karting at 3 years old, winning championships at the international level. He made his racing debut at 16 in the 1999 Europe Open by Nissan, before progressing onto International Formula 3000. In December 1999 he tested before being signed as Minardi’s test and reserve driver in 2000, joining the team in 2001. Alonso was then signed as the Renault test driver in 2002, being promoted to a seat in 2003 where he remained until 2006, winning two World Championships. In 2007, the driver moved to McLaren, however mutually terminated his contract with the team in the November after deliberately delaying Hamilton in the pits. He then resigned with Renault for the 2008 and 2009 season. Ferrari signed the driver between 2010 and 2014. After falling out with the team principal, Alonso returned to McLaren between 2015 and 2018. The driver then left the sport, remaining an ambassador for McLaren, citing reasons such as not enough on-track racing and the predictability of the results, also mentioning his thoughts about the broadcasting of the team radios. He returned to the sport this season. The driver was named as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2015, with numerous other ventures including an eSports racing team.

Esteban Ocon #31

Esteban Ocon is a 24-year-old French racing driver who has 1 F1 podium with 72 race starts. Ocon started karting in 2006, before moving up to Formula Renault in 2012 and then making his F3 debut in 2014 (winning the Championship) and testing for Lotus F1. In 2015 he moved to GP3 (also winning the championship), as well as testing for Force India, before driving for Mercedes in the 2016 DTM season. Ocon made his F1 race debut for Manor in 2016, joining the team halfway through the season after their previous driver failed to meet contractual obligations. In 2017 he moved to Force India where he stayed until the end of the 2018 season, where he was replaced by Stroll. Without a team to drive for, Ocon was signed as the reserve driver for Mercedes 2019, with rumours that he would replace Bottas for the 2020 season. However, this never came to fruition and the driver signed for Renault for the season instead. Up until this point, he was part of the Mercedes driver development programme. Here is earned his first podium at the Sakhir GP, finishing 2nd alongside former teammate Perez. He stayed with the team for the rebrand to Alpine.

Other Drivers

The team's reserve driver is Daniil Kvyat. You can read more about him here!