Alpine’s 7 greatest moments in Formula 1

Ocon scores his and Alpine’s first win

It was by no means a foregone conclusion. Esteban Ocon started the Hungarian Grand Prix from eighth on the grid so even a podium finish looked relatively hard to achieve. But a first-lap incident took out quite a number of the drivers ahead of him, and for the restart things suddenly looked a lot more positive for the Frenchman.

For the second start, everyone but Lewis Hamilton had switched to slick tyres, the British driver opting to stick with intermediates. When Hamilton pitted on the fourth lap for tyres better suited to ever-drying conditions, Ocon took the race lead. Team-mate Fernando Alonso held off the advancing Hamilton to protect Ocon’s position and he eventually took the chequered flag for the first time in his F1 career.

It was a victory significant on numerous accounts — the first win for Alpine, and the first for the Enstone-based team since 2013 when it ran with Lotus branding. Ocon also became the first French driver to win a Grand Prix with a French car and engine since Alain Prost’s victory in Austria 1983.

Räikkönen ‘knows what he’s doing’

It was a meme before memes flooded the internet. “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing,” said Kimi Räikkönen over the radio to engineer Simon Rennie. And he proved that he really did know what he was doing. In one of the closing rounds of the highly competitive 2012 season, he put his Lotus-era Enstone car fourth on the grid before delivering a race day performance that was reminiscent of his glory days at McLaren.

Räikkönen had been away from F1 since 2009, spending the intervening time competing in the World Rally Championship. The Yas Marina circuit was the scene of his first victory since returning to the sport at the beginning of the season. 

That terse statement over the radio was a contrast to the lack of emotion displayed by the Iceman when was back on the familiar top step of the podium, presented with rose water in place of the champagne that would be the norm in the West.

Alonso takes Renault to the summit

Fernando Alonso had risen quickly through the single-seater ranks before arriving in F1 as a Minardi driver in 2001. By then, he often found himself as the youngest driver on any given grid. But it was after a switch to Renault in 2003 that his career really took off.

That first season proved tricky, the difficult-to-drive R24 leaving him winless for the whole campaign. But the following year the stars were aligned for the young Spaniard. Not only was the Renault R25 on the pace, Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari wasn’t as quick and Kimi Räikkönen’s McLaren was fast but fragile. Alonso capitalised with 14 top three finishes and seven outright wins. He only really set a foot wrong in Canada when he crashed out while leading. It was a stellar season, and at 24 years old he became the then-youngest F1 World Champion.

Going into the following season defending his crown, Alonso racked up plenty of points-scoring finishes in the earlier races of the season, which stood him in good stead when Ferrari found some pace for Schumacher. Now faced with a formidable rival, Alonso remained calm under pressure and revelled in the challenge. By the end of the season, Schumacher and Alonso had scored seven wins each, but it was the Renault driver who came out on top to claim a second Drivers’ Championship and a retain the Constructors’ Championship for Renault.

Berger claims Benetton’s final victory

The F1 circus went into the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix with Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) and Jaques Villeneuve (Williams) vying for the Championship. Benetton’s Jean Alesi was third, but some way back in the points tally.

Fellow Benetton driver Gerhard Berger was back in his seat having sat out the prior three rounds because of on-going sinus problems that required surgery. He was on top form, thought, driving straight to pole position on his return. In the early stages of the race, he came under pressure from the Jordan of Giancarlo Fisichella, who had his first ever front-row start that weekend. That was until the Jordan succumbed to a puncture.

It all meant that Berger had a clear run up front, leading the race for all but his scheduled pitstops. His win would prove to be the final both of his career and for Benetton, which neatly book-ended his claiming of the team’s first win more than a decade earlier. But we’ll come to that later...

Schumacher’s consecutive Benetton Championships

The 1994 F1 season was one that was full of controversies, the depths of which we can’t get into here — there are entire books dedicated to the subject. It was also the season that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in a single weekend.

The Championship battle was between Benetton driver Michael Schumacher and Williams’ Damon Hill. Schumacher initially dominated the season, but his luck unravelled at the British Grand Prix when he was issued a stop-go penalty for passing Hill on the formation lap. The team instructed the German to stay on track while they appealed, which led to a black flag.

By the time the Australian season finale took place, Hill had closed the gap to the extent that either driver could have won the title. A controversial collision between the two drivers meant both failed to finish and the title went to Schumacher.

The following year, the bitter rivalry with Hill continued, the two colliding at both the British and Italian Grands Prix. Schumacher won seven rounds, matching the record set by Nigel Mansell three years earlier. He successfully defended his title the following year, which also helped Benetton on its way to winning its only Constructors’ Championship. 

Berger’s first race win is also Benetton’s

Gerhard Berger’s first season in F1 was with Arrows, but that car didn’t have the pace to allow his talents as a driver to shine. That would come a year later when he made the move to Benetton, which was the name that season for the former Toleman team. 

When Formula 1 arrived in Mexico for the first time in 16 years, Berger benefitted from running on Pirelli tyres, which unlike the alternative Goodyears would last a full race distance. Not needing to stop for a tyre change helped him convert fourth on the grid to a first race win. This was aided by pole-sitter Nigel Mansell’s fluffed gearchange at the start, which saw much of the field, Berger included, pass the British driver.

Berger started 210 Grands Prix, with stints at Ferrari and McLaren, but he returned to Benetton for his final seasons and claimed his and the team’s final win 11 years after making his debut for the Enstone outfit.

Senna shows wet weather skills for first podium

The start of the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix was delayed by 45 minutes because the principality had been lashed by heavy rain. So exceptional were the circumstances that the tunnel was deliberately flooded at the request of Niki Lauda to dilute the oil that had been left by the support races.

That year was Ayrton Senna’s first in F1, and he started in a lowly 13^th position in the generally uncompetitive Toleman. However, he was able to demonstrate the skills in poor weather that would become legendary. He profited from some retirements up ahead, but nonetheless demonstrated pace that revealed his star talent, at one time closing in on the Ferrari of Lauda before the Austrian retired.

Senna battled the conditions to claim a first podium for himself and for Toleman. The race was won by pole-sitter and Senna’s future Championship rival, Alain Prost.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Thursday tickets are now limited. A small batch of extra tickets for Friday–Sunday have just been released, exclusively for members of the GRRC.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.