A challenging year for the Alpine team has been tough for French connections in Formula 1. Based in the UK yet owned by the Renault Group and with power delivered from the southern side of Paris to provide two French drivers with opportunities to shine, it hasn’t delivered results. In a period when the nation that hosted the first motorsport events in the 1890s no longer holds an F1 race, it feels as though there is a gap developing.
Perhaps I’m biased; the first road car I drove as a teenager on the family farm