F1 News: Ocon to leave Alpine after 2024 season – Fact (Update)

BWT Alpine F1 Team and Esteban Ocon have agreed together to part ways at the end of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, the conclusion of the Frenchman’s contract with the team.

It brings a five-year collaboration between the team and Esteban to a close, during which, Alpine and Esteban recorded their first Grand Prix victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, a landmark moment for the brand, the team, and Esteban himself.

Esteban recorded two further podiums during his five years, achieving second place at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, his first visit to the rostrum in Formula 1, and the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix where he finished in third place. He achieved a best finish of eighth in the 2022 Drivers’ Championship, contributing to the team’s fourth place finish in the Constructors’ Championship that year.

The team looks forward to continuing its hard work with Esteban for the remainder of the 2024 season and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

The team’s 2025 driver line-up will be announced in due course.

Esteban Ocon: “It’s been a significant period of my life to be racing at this team in Formula 1. While I’ve been here for five years as a full-time racing driver, my professional career started at Enstone back when I was a teenager, so it will always be a special place for me. We have had some great moments together, some tough moments as well, and I am certainly grateful to everyone at the team for these memorable times. I will announce my plans very soon but, in the meantime, my full focus is on delivering on track for this team and having a successful remainder of the season.”

Bruno Famin, Team Principal: “We would like to firstly thank Esteban for his commitment to the team for the past five years. During his time, we have celebrated some fantastic moments together, the best of which coming at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix with a memorable race win. We still have 16 races to complete in 2024 together with a clear objective: to continue to work tirelessly as a team to push for the best on-track results. We wish Esteban the very best for the next chapter of his driving career when that moment comes.”

(GMM) Esteban Ocon will definitely not be relegated to the bench at this weekend’s Canadian GP, but will leave the team at the end of the season

The Alpine driver was heavily criticized by his furious team boss Bruno Famin after Ocon’s collision with teammate Pierre Gasly in Monaco.

Some reports suggest Williams subsequently ruled him out of contention for 2025, while rumors swirled that Ocon may be punished by Alpine with an internal race ban.

L’Equipe says the claims about a race suspension were wide of the mark.

“According to our information, he (Ocon) will be in Montreal,” the French sports daily said, “but he will not continue with the French brand beyond the end of his (2024) contract.”

In a lengthy sequence of tweets posted on X, 27-year-old Ocon confirmed that he will be racing this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to competing in Montreal, in front of the fantastic Canadian fans, and to the exciting opportunities the future holds,” he said.

Ocon added that he was “saddened” by some of the post-Monaco coverage, insisting: “We are not robots. We are athletes pushing ourselves to the limit every day to achieve our dreams of winning races”.

“The misinformed statements and gross distortions that I have seen online in recent days about my ability to work with a team have been inaccurate, hurtful, and damaging,” he said.

Ocon denied he ignored Alpine’s pre-race team “instructions”, and reiterated that he has already taken “responsibility” for causing the crash.

It’s tough times at Alpine at present, with long-time operations director Rob White now departing as the Enstone and Viry based team works its way out of a performance slump.

Team boss Famin, however, hailed the outfit’s success in getting the previously hefty 2024 car down to the minimum weight, and said the car’s performance is not as bad as is being reported.

“contrary to popular belief, the A524 goes much faster than the A523,” he told France’s Auto Hebdo.

“I’ve read some crazy stuff on this subject, but it’s true that relatively speaking, we lost positions, which means that the others progressed more than us and that we weren’t able to develop quickly enough.”