Ahead of final practice at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 Japanese Grand Prix, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果🌠:Alpine announced the signing of Gasly on a multi-year deal from AlphaTauri.

Ocon and Gasly were friends ൩during their karting days, having both been born in the French region of Normandy.

However, their friendship deterior💧ated over the years, even to a point where🌞 there was considerable friction between the pair.

Speaking in the FIA’s Saturday press conf𒉰erence at🍸 Suzuka, Szafnauer has no concerns about the pair working together. 

“We made an informed decision and that means talking to the entire team - includ🧔ing Esteban beforehand - to make sure tha⛦t if we did make a decision it’s a team sport and we have to be able to work together and optimise,” he said.

“Esteban was very 🙈supportive, Pierre as well. They’re professionals and they have no issue working𓄧 together. Hopefully the friendship will rekindle, they were friends at one point, but from a professional perspective they’re both very happy to work with each other.”

The signing of Gasly c🌳omes after a long saga for Alpine.

Initially, they wanted t🅺o keep Fernando Alonso on a one-year deal, while placing junior driver Oscar Piastri💮 at Williams.

Alonso dec꧃ided to join Aston Martin once Sebastian Vettel decided to retire, giving Piastri a potential drive at Alpine.

However, the highly-rated Australian was signed by McLaren, leading𝔉 to a dramatic number of weeks as Alpine thought they had a valid contract to sign Piastri for next year.

Explaining why Alpine decided to sign Gasly in the end, Szafnauer 🐭said: “We put him on the shortlist and one of the reasons was he was going to become available in ’24, not for ’23, and then it became quite🌸 evident to us. 

“He’s got youth, experience and speed, and that’s difficult to say for a lot of drivers that are still within Formula 1. Even (Alonso and Pias꧅tri) didn’t have those things, so we’re fortunate to secure Pierre and look forward to working with him.”

• 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2023 F1 driver line-up