Everything except a surprise: a week after the collision with teammate Pierre Gasly in Monaco, Alpine has decided to part ways with French driver Esteban Ocon at the end of the season, the F1 team announced on Monday.
In the heat of the moment, the boss of the French team Bruno Famin promised to “cut it to the chase” at the microphone of Canal + a few minutes after the incident that occurred during the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix, when Ocon tried to overtake Gasly and hit him, greatly damaging his car. The French leader will have kept his word.
“Alpine and Esteban Ocon have agreed to part ways under the terms of the French driver’s contract with the team at the end of the 2024 season. The move will end a five-year collaboration […] during which Alpine and Esteban won their first Grand Prix” in Hungary in 2021, the French brand said Monday in a press release.
Since his arrival in 2020, the 27-year-old driver has competed in 91 Grands Prix with the Renault team, renamed Alpine in 2021, and scored three podiums with his second and third places at the Sakhir GP in 2020 and the Monaco GP in 2023 , which adds to his victory at the Hungaroring in August 2021.
A departure that was already probable
The unfortunate maneuver of the Norman in the Principality, which forced him to abandon but did not prevent his teammate and compatriot Pierre Gasly from snatching the point for 10th place, will therefore have tarnished his image a little and precipitated a separation which should however be put into perspective because it already seemed very probable before this incident.
After five seasons with Alpine, Esteban Ocon was indeed reaching the end of a cycle in the French team and would probably have left for other lands. According to several media, he was already in discussions with several teams including the American team Haas and Sauber, which will become Audi in 2026.
The clash with Gasly and especially Famin’s statements had caused a lot of ink to flow in the days following the race in Monaco, to the point that certain media had announced that Ocon could be suspended by Alpine for the Canadian Grand Prix scheduled for next weekend in Montreal.
“Esteban’s attack was completely out of circumstances,” the team’s Team Principal reacted quickly, interviewed by Canal + during the race. “It was exactly what we didn’t want to see, we will draw the consequences.”
Ocon, however, apologized the same day of the accident, acknowledging his responsibility: “Today’s incident is my fault, the gap was too small and I apologize to the team,” he wrote on social networks.
Alpine told AFP on Thursday that it would “make no comment” on this possible suspension in Canada, describing this information as “rumor”.
Uncertainty for 2025
On Friday, it was the pilot who spoke at length on social networks to denounce in particular “the quantity of insults received online”.
“The distorted statements and gross misinformation I have seen online in recent days about my ability to work with a team are inaccurate, hurtful and damaging,” Ocon explained, before concluding by saying he “looks forward to running Montreal.”
The departure of the Norman, even if it was expected, increases the uncertainty at Alpine for next season since Pierre Gasly, also at the end of his contract, could also leave. “The team duo for the 2025 season will be announced later,” the brand simply indicated to the A arrow on Monday.
These recent internal tensions have not helped the situation for Alpine, which has already had a very difficult start to the season with a car far from expectations and in a glaring lack of performance.
Thus, the French team had to wait for the sixth Grand Prix, in Miami, to score its first point of the year and after eight rounds, it only has two and is in 9th place out of 10 in the manufacturers’ standings.