‘And then there were none’: F1 photo goes viral as team’s downfall exposed

A photo featuring Aussie Oscar Piastri has gone viral in F1 circles this week as a team’s brutal transformation stunned commentators.

Australia will have two drivers in Formula One in 2025, with Jack Doohan set to benefit from one team’s major overhaul.

Doohan’s debut will come earlier than expected at this weekend’s season ending Abu Grand Prix after Esteban Ocon and Alpine parted ways with one race left this season.

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Doohan will benefit from the hit-out to get some nerves out of his system and experience the pressure of an F1 race ahead of next year’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

It is a big gamble though, given Alpine is just five points ahead of Haas in the constructors championship heading into the final race of the season.

Ocon, 28, signed with Haas earlier this season for 2025 but will end his five-year stint with Alpine early as part of an agreement that allows him to do postseason testing with his new team.

The Frenchman’s abrupt departure took the F1 paddock by surprise and brings down the curtain on a tumultuous season for Alpine.

F1 pundits have been reflecting on the downfall of Alpine, who at the start of 2022 boasted one of the most solid driver line-ups.

At the start of the 2022 season, Alpine unveiled their trio of drivers — Fernando Alonso and Ocon along with reigning F2 champion and reserve driver Oscar Piastri, who was front and centre at the unveiling of the team’s car for that season.

Oscar Piastri, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso have left Alpine since the 2022 team launch. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)

Less than two years later, all three are gone and the team has transformed, or capitulated, depending on which way you look at it.

Alonso left to join Aston Martin at the end of the 2023 season and is holding out hope car designer Adrian Newey can give him a car that can deliver him a world championship two decades after he won two titles with Renault.

Alpine announced Piastri would join the team, only for the Aussie to rebuke that claim, declaring “I will not be driving for Alpine next year” in a post that will go down in F1 social media folklore.

And then there were none... pic.twitter.com/vaA6AHAUuH

— Tom Bellingham (@TomP1Bellingham) December 2, 2024

What Alpine did with these three will be studied in history books pic.twitter.com/q1ixYyqsff

— Holiness (@F1BigData) December 2, 2024

Then Pierre Gasly joined Ocon at Alpine on 2023. On paper it was a dream combination — two French drivers driving for a French team.

They both began their full-time F1 careers in 2017 and they have very similar records, with one race win each.

But Gasly and Ocon have never got on since their relationship deteriorated during their junior karting days.

The duo collided on the opening lap of this year’s Monaco Grand Prix and Ocon endured a season from hell. He signed a deal with Haas earlier this year to join the team from 2025.

Ocon and Gasly both finished on the podium at the rain affected Brazilian Grand Prix but that was a rare highlight for Ocon, who claimed his sole race win in Hungary in 2021.

So where did it all go wrong for Alpine?

It’s not just the drivers where Alpine has had significant turnover.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer was sacked mid-season in 2023. Bruno Famin served in that role before Oli Oakes was appointed team principal in August.

Alpine’s technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer left the team after the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

In May, Alpine announced Flavio Briatore was returning to the team as special advisor. Briatore managed Doohan, so it would seem the Aussie’s future is tied to Alpine for now.

Alpine’s double podium in Brazil was a rare highlight. (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)

The pairing of Ocon and Gasly was a dream for a motorsport outfit steeped in French history, but the team is losing its French soul made iconic by the Renault brand.

When the new era of F1 regulations commence in 2026, Alpine will no longer be a ‘works’ team using a Renault power unit and will instead become a customer team.

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo ordered a review into the F1 operation and in September, it was confirmed staff would continue working on power units for 2025 but the team’s engine base in Viry, France would shut down.

The F1 project that has run since the 1970s will cease and resources and around 200 staff would be allocated elsewhere.

Alpine has a base in Enstone, England and will have a customer power unit supply for the first time since 2015, when they had a Mercedes engine. The F1 team will work solely out of their factory in the UK.

Ocon and Gasly both finished on the podium at the rain affected Brazilian Grand Prix but that was a rare highlight for Ocon, who claimed his sole race win in Hungary in 2021.

Jack Doohan will drive for Alpine in 2025. Photo: Mark Sutton/Getty Images/AFP.

Not everything is bad for Alpine though. Gasly is in arguably career-best form, qualifying better than ever and helping move Alpine up to sixth in the constructors standings after a fifth-place finish in Qatar.

Alpine does have a strong presence in F1 Academy, where Great Britain’s Abbi Pulling is set to clinch this year’s championship for female drivers.

Mick Schumacher will race for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship next year.

Doohan will be one of five drivers starting their first full season on the grid in 2025, along with Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Ollie Bearman (Haas), Liam Lawson (VCARB) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber).

Judging by the year Alpine has had, the 21-year-old son of five-time MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan might have his work cut out for him.