At the end of fifth consecutive season racing for Enstone’s Formula 1 team, Esteban Ocon will depart the team currently known as Alpine at the conclusion of 2024 to join Haas.
On the face of it, the 27-year-old is not enjoying a particularly outstanding season. For one thing, he is behind team mate Pierre Gasly in the championship by a single point after only managing to record four top ten finishes in the first 14 rounds of the season.
But as can so often be the case in Formula 1, looking at the results alone rarely tells a complete picture.
Alpine began the season with a car that just wasn’t at the level of performance the team expected or should have been at, given their resources and position in last year’s championship. But while the opening rounds were an exercise in frustration and extreme patience, Ocon was clearly the one who coped better in the situation between him and Gasly.
Ocon began the year out-qualifying Gasly in each of the first five rounds. While it took until the fifth attempt in China for Gasly to escape Q1 for the first time, Ocon had done so three times by that same point. The average margin between them in qualifying over that span sat at 0.21s in Ocon’s favour.
He was superior in the races too. Aside from the Australian Grand Prix, Ocon beat his team mate to the chequered flag in five of the first six rounds in which they both finished – and even his Melbourne afternoon was compromised when a rogue tear-off strip got caught in his brake duct. His work in Jeddah was also worthy of praise, finishing ahead of both RBs, a Williams and both Saubers when the team was still scrambling desperately to find any pace they could. He even secured the team’s first point of the entire season in Miami with a very solid drive on Sunday, again beating Gasly to the team’s first top ten of the championship.
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But despite putting in some very solid work over the early phase of the season, Ocon was guilty of one of the most unnecessary and foolishly selfish acts of the entire year in Monaco. Having been out-qualified by Gasly, Ocon was desperate not to lose out to his team mate at the start and lose preferential treatment for the rest of the race. He threw his car up the inside of Gasly’s into Portier, leading to an inevitable collision that pitched him up into the air and caused irreparable damage to his car and threatened to cost Gasly his race too.
Although Ocon accepted responsibility and was relieved when Gasly was able to take the restart and score a point in tenth, the damage had been done. It was hardly coincidence that, before the next round in Canada, Alpine announced that they would be moving on from Ocon at the end of the season.
Esteban Ocon
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 9 | 19 (x2) |
| GP finish | 9 | 18 |
| Points | 5 | |
After this embarrassing episode, Ocon managed to bounce back at the next round in Montreal. A very strong Sunday saw him make his intermediate tyres last over half the race before switching to slicks. Although he finished behind Gasly, that was mainly down to him surrendering ninth to his team mate under orders in the closing laps.
Following a trio of rounds in which Gasly out-qualified him, Ocon turned the tables on his team mate into the summer break with a run of four consecutive Saturday afternoons where he was the faster Alpine driver – although Silverstone would not truly count due to Gasly having entered that weekend with a ‘back of the grid’ penalty.
The latest round of the championship, Belgium, was possibly Ocon’s best of the season. After missing the opening practice session with a water leak, he managed to reach Q3 for the third time in five rounds. Although he lost places at the start, his race was excellent – passing several rivals over the race, including Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps to take his best finish of the season in ninth following George Russell’s disqualification.
Throughout the season, Ocon has shown considerable grit in the face of the disappointing performance of his car. But aside from having the edge over his team mate for the bulk of the season – if not on the scoreboard – Ocon has also demonstrated the qualities that have led Haas to take a gamble on him over Kevin Magnussen for 2025.
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