#i do think rossi and co are only publicially supportive whenever they see it fit

[estebanbicon]

So I don't really follow Alpine closely but from what I've seen their management has always seemed a bit messy. This was further reinforced with Piastri mess and how things went with Alonso. I've noticed Pierre fans say since the deal was signed that Alpine seems very supportive of Pierre, showing that he's wanted and valued, especially from Laurent Rossi I think. And tbh they haven't seemed particularly supportive of their drivers before so I thought to ask you if it was the same case with Este? Did they act the same way about him as they're doing for Pierre now?

hm, i think it is a bit different with este because he joined while it was still renault under cyril abiteboul.

i do think they did show appreciation when they gave him a new (and better) engineer in josh peckett in 2021, someone este has worked with before in manor, and also some new people on his side of the garage. because it worked better for este and it showed. and of course the trust they put in him signing him until 2024 back in 2021.

but also, laurent rossi is very messy. he managed to freeze out both marcin budowski and alain prost. especially how they handled prost leaving - announcing it without prost knowing - was incredibly bad. prost himself came for rossi, saying he was a selfish dick who wants to be on top deciding everything alone.

rossi also often makes dumbass comments to media. i remember when este had the problems with his cracked chassis for a few races, and immediately rossi labelled him as number two driver, only for este to go and win hungary and rossi doing a 180 pretending he always knew este had it in him. and now of course him acting all tough about the alonso este clashes.

since otmar szfanauer joined, rossi has taken a backseat, at least publically. but otmar also sometimes makes odd comments, though i do prefer him over rossi.

i have seen that renault/alpine has always been seen as messy. daniel also was shocked at their disorganization, and i guess that also factored into alonso and oscar leaving.

in general, i think it is a supportive team to have, but the leading bosses are very uh peculiar.