Why Ocon's continued presence in F1 would be welcomed in 2025

It was one of those endless moments that precedes catastrophe.

Esteban Ocon’s Alpine A524 sent skywards, its left-rear having thumped the right-front of team-mate Pierre Gasly. In the gaudy opulence of Monaco’s Larvotto district, the resulting crash to earth was to be just as jarringly costly.

Ocon had been under strict instructions not only to not attack the lead Alpine car, but help it – Gasly started 10th and was essentially nailed on for his first point of 2024 given Monaco’s overtaking void. The botched pass put Ocon out of the race, his rear suspension destroyed, and incensed Alpine team principal Bruno Famin.

The now one-year team boss has an oft-incomprehensible approach to communication with the media. But he vowed drastic action. Eight days later, Ocon’s upcoming exit from the team he’d joined in 2020 as Renault, the squad for which he’d scored that famous victory in Hungary in 2021, was announced.

The split had seemingly been a while in the making. The A524 is a colourless disaster. Ocon’s over-celebrating getting it out of Q1 in Australia and Japan hadn’t gone down well within Alpine. Then there was that aggressive early racing with Gasly in Miami, where points were on for a team when this is rarely guaranteed in 2024. It evoked memories of his clashes with team-mate Fernando Alonso, which reached an ugly blue-on-blue head at Interlagos in 2022 before Ocon’s illustrious rival abandoned Alpine to join Aston.

At the time of writing, Ocon still has F1 options for 2025 and beyond. Haas is his most likely destination, but he could be an option for Audi/Sauber. That’s assuming his latest internecine contact hasn’t put off what will be another manufacturer marque obsessed with corporate compliance, one likely to baulk at the idea of its 2026 cars hitting each other à la Ocon and Sergio Pérez at Force India, repeatedly.

Wherever Ocon ends up, he’s long lost the career trajectory of a future champion. But signing elsewhere in F1’s lower midfield would at least keep his story alive. And it’s one that is truly compelling.

Ocon's humble story makes seeing him race in 2025 more compelling

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Ocon is one of a handful of modern F1 drivers to make it to the top level from very humble origins – his family sold their house to fund his karting career. Eventually, he was picked up by Mercedes as a junior and some friendly wrangling between Toto Wolff and Fréd Vasseur meant a place at the latter’s ART Grand Prix squad. The 2015 GP3 title followed his 2014 European F3 triumph ahead of Max Verstappen and soon an F1 berth with Manor appeared.

The clear parallel with Ocon’s rise is that of Lewis Hamilton. But the seven-time world champion has a reputation for clean racing Ocon just doesn’t.

Forget pithy points about those 2021 crashes with Verstappen, where Hamilton only gave as good as he got and backed out of much more contact, incidents such as Ocon’s pitwall chop on the Mercedes racer in the 2022 Monaco rain just aren’t part of Hamilton’s arsenal and, ultimately, Ocon’s benefactor never came calling for promotion to the big time.

At the time of writing, Ocon still has F1 options for 2025 and beyond. Haas is his most likely destination, but he could be an option for Audi/Sauber

The directness Ocon acknowledges he deploys within teams isn’t unique – ruthlessness is essential for any sports star. But if he’s deploying it elsewhere in F1 in 2025, at least he can continue his efforts to reward his family for their considerable sacrifices a decade and more ago. His father closed his garage to outside clients at his son’s urging in 2022 and should rightly be proud of his efforts and achievements.

Just remember Ocon’s story the next time a nepo/trust fund baby enters the F1 fray already packed with them. It’s scrappy, but important in F1’s supposed meritocracy.

Ocon has much to be proud of in his career

Photo by: Erik Junius