Otmar Szafnauer: Jeremy Clarkson is a man of his word!

      Otmar Szafnauer, the former team principal of Alpine F1, shared memories of a funny episode involving Jeremy Clarkson, the famous British television presenter and a big fan of Formula 1.

      Clarkson has a special connection to the Renault factory team because the Alpine base in Enstone is located next to his farm, where he has been filming a documentary series for over five years. Five seasons of "Clarkson's Farm" have been released, with a sixth promised, as all of them have been hugely popular with viewers from various countries.

      We previously wrote about the episode that took place in 2023 after the Monaco Grand Prix, but since Szafnauer was a direct participant in this story, he has now shared some new details.

      On race day, Clarkson promised to treat every Alpine F1 employee to Hawkstone beer from his brewery if any of the team's drivers made it to the podium in Monaco. The likelihood of him having to fulfill this promise was low, as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon had finished in the lower end of the top ten at best in the first five races of the season, and not on every track.

      Yet in Monaco, Ocon shone with his skill: he set the third-fastest time in qualifying, held off Carlos Sainz, a Ferrari driver, for over thirty laps, and after all the pit stops, returned to third place and finished on the podium. Max Verstappen won, Fernando Alonso took second place, but since it was only the third podium in the French driver's career, he clearly celebrated more than those two champions.

      "Esteban made it to the podium in Monaco, and during that race, Jeremy Clarkson said, 'If my neighbors finish in the top three, I’ll give everyone a pack of Hawkstone beer!' Szafnauer recalled while participating in the High Performance podcast. "So he arrived at our place in his Lamborghini tractor with a huge agricultural trailer completely loaded with beer.

      Everything took place on the street next to our base, all the staff gathered, we set up audio equipment, Esteban had the microphone, and I stood next to Jeremy.

      Clarkson is a man of his word; he came to us in Enstone with Caleb Cooper, another star of his series, and all 875 members of Alpine F1 really received their beer, which is brewed in Oxfordshire not far from our base.

      Esteban then said, 'I want to sincerely thank Jeremy Clarkson not only for treating each of us to beer but because he keeps his word!'

      And you know what Clarkson shouted back to him? 'That's because I'm not French!'"

      Szafnauer has long since left Alpine and Formula 1 altogether, but Clarkson continues to maintain good neighborly relations with the team, and just over a month ago, we reported that his farm now supplies a variety of food products of its own production to Enstone.