In 13th in Pit Debrief’s F1 Driver Rankings for 2024 is Esteban Ocon.
Esteban Ocon endured a rollercoaster 2024 season at Alpine, with several point-less finishes interrupted by three P10 finishes, one P9, and a standout performance in the 2024 São Paulo GP, where he secured the third podium of his career. Unfortunately, Ocon suffered a disastrous end to his season. A P17 finish in Las Vegas and early retirement in Qatar followed his glorious P2 in Brazil. Then, to top it all off, Alpine dismissed him before the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP, keeping him out of the final race of the season.
Ultimately, Ocon ended his fifth season at Alpine on a sour note. He finished P14 in the Driver’s Championship with just 23 points and a lot to say about how things are run at Alpine.
A disappointing start to 2024 for Ocon
Despite claiming total dedication to the 2024 Alpine F1 project, Ocon approached the first races of the season with caution and wariness. Though he defended the team’s work on designing the A524, he acknowledged that the team would need to focus on their long-term goals as the car could be “tricky” at the start of the season. Unfortunately, Ocon’s wariness was soon justified when Alpine suffered a disastrous qualifying in Bahrain. This poor qualifying session saw Ocon start the race P19, with his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, just behind in P20. With the A524 unable to match the pace of many of their rivals, they finished a disappointing P17 and P18 respectively.
Ocon’s disappointment continued in Saudi Arabia where he finished P13 after qualifying P17, and then in Australia where he finished P16 after starting P15. Of course, it would not be fair to blame Ocon’s performance on his own skills behind the wheel. That the A524 was overweight and subsequently lacking pace was just one, albeit the most significant, of the many challenges faced by Alpine in these early races.
Ocon’s frustration continued in Japan. Despite starting the race in P15, and eventually moving up to P11 after the second restart of the race, the 27-year-old found himself unable to match the pace of his rivals. He ultimately finished the race P15, 22 seconds behind Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. Ocon later described the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix as Alpine’s “first step backwards since Bahrain.”
Ocon scores Alpine’s first points of 2024 in Miami
Despite the difficult start to the season, the 2024 Chinese GP offered Ocon, and subsequently Alpine, an opportunity to put themselves back in contention for points. Ahead of the weekend, Alpine introduced an upgraded floor to Ocon’s A524.
The team had originally planned to introduce this upgrade for the Miami GP but fast-tracked it. This allowed Alpine to compare its performance against the older specification run by Ocon’s teammate Gasly. Fortunately for Alpine, the upgrade showed promise, allowing Ocon a P13 finish in the sprint and P11 finish in the race, ahead of his teammate. Unfortunately, Ocon could not score the team’s first points, only just missing out on P10 by less than 2.4 seconds.
Instead, Alpine’s first points would come in Miami. Despite a disappointing P15 finish during the sprint, Ocon managed to turn his weekend around during Sunday’s race. He finished P10, two places ahead of Gasly, despite starting P13. However, while Ocon acknowledged the team’s improvements, he remained cautious, stating that the team still needed to improve their performance, especially as other teams had also made improvements.
The 2024 Emilia Romagna GP, just two weeks later, proved that Alpine had not yet completely turned around their season. Ocon finished the race P14 after qualifying P12. His teammate Gasly, finished behind him in P16.
The Monaco debacle
If the Miami GP was one of the highs of Ocon’s 2024 season, the Monaco GP was one of his lowest of lows. Ocon qualified P11 for the race, after narrowly missing out on a Q3 appearance. His fastest lap time of 1:11.285 was just 0.4 seconds too slow to outperform Gasly who ultimately claimed P10. Though frustrated with his performance, Ocon admitted that he had made the mistake which had led to his Q2 exit. He did, however, remain optimistic, stating that he would aim to make up positions despite the difficulties of overtaking in Monaco.
Ocon did attempt a first-lap overtake on Gasly on the exit of Portier. Unfortunately, his optimistic pass did not go as planned as he collided with Gasly. Ocon subsequently retired from the race, effectively halving Alpine’s chances of scoring points. Gasly, thanks to the red flag brought out after the collision between Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg, and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, reclaimed his P10 position at the restart. He finished P10, adding a second point to Alpine’s tally.
Ocon was heavily, and justifiably criticised following the incident, with Team Principal Bruno Famin promising “appropriate consequences” for the incident. Though Ocon later apologised for the incident and denied having disregarded team orders, Alpine soon made these consequences known when, ahead of the 2024 Canadian GP, they announced that they would not renew Ocon’s contract for 2025.
“Being a nice guy” fails to pay off in Canada
Despite speculation that Alpine would suspend Ocon for the 2024 Canadian GP, the team confirmed that the Frenchman would feature in the race, though he would surrender the first practice session (FP1) to reserve driver Jack Doohan. Allegedly, this decision came after Alpine’s legal team advised caution against such a consequence, noting the potential for legal challenges.
However, if Ocon had planned to redeem himself in Canada, he was left disappointed after he qualified P18. Ocon blamed this on him having a heavier chassis than his teammate, Gasly. However, he claimed that this was part of an agreement within the team to rotate the chassis and upgrades. Despite this, Ocon was able to make up a significant number of positions in the race, eventually finding himself in P9 ahead of Gasly.
Ocon, however, could not hold on to P9. On Lap 68 of the race, Alpine asked him to swap positions with his teammate to give Gasly the opportunity to chase down RB’s Daniel Ricciardo. Although Ocon disagreed with the decision, he complied, assuming that Gasly would return the position if he failed to overtake Ricciardo. This did not happen, leaving Ocon P10 behind Gasly in P9. As expected, the Ocon was furious, claiming that “[being] a nice guy doesn’t always pay off in Formula 1.” This was the first of many signs that the relationship between Ocon and Alpine had become irreparably fractured.
Despite this, Ocon scored his third point of the 2024 season at the Spanish Grand Prix, despite some performance loss due to suspected damage to his A524. This, unfortunately, was the last point that Ocon would score with the team until Belgium. He finished P12 in Austria, P16 at Silverstone, and a disappointing P18 in Hungary – the track where he took his first F1 victory.
Ocon secures 2025 seat with Haas
Going into th 2024 Belgian GP, the final race before the summer break, Gasly, with six points, led Ocon in the Drivers’ Championship standings by three points, despite Ocon having out-performed him in six of the season’s 11 feature races. Admittedly, Gasly suffered two early retirements and was unable to start one of these races. Ocon, on the other hand, was only unable to complete the Monaco GP.
Regardless, Ocon again outperformed his Alpine teammate in Belgium. He finished P9 after a P10 start and Mercedes’ George Russell’s disqualification. Gasly, on the other hand, finished P13 after a P12 start.
However, the addition of two more points to his tally in the Drivers’ Championship, was hardly the highlight of Ocon’s week. On te Thursday before the race, July 25, Haas announced that Ocon had agreed to join the team on a multi-year deal.
A drastic decline in performance
Unfortunately, Ocon’s form following his return from the summer break was less than impressive after he led his teammate 10-4 in the qualifying head-to-head. He finished the 2024 Dutch GP P15, six places behind Gasly who finished P9. A P14 finish in Italy soon followed despite the team reportedly trying everything they could to improve their performance. Ocon would fail to score another point until the São Paulo GP. He finished P15 in Azerbaijan, P13 in Singapore, P18 in the United States and P13 in Mexico. Gasly outperformed him in all but the Singapore GP, even taking another point in Mexico.
Ocon’s best performance of 2024: The São Paulo GP
The 2024 São Paulo GP got off to a disappointing start for Ocon. He suffered a disastrous sprint qualifying session, failing to make it out of SQ1. His teammate, on the other hand, qualified P7. Gasly went on to finish the sprint race in P7, earning another two points to his tally in the Drivers’ Championship. Ocon, however, finished P13 after a P16 start.
However, Ocon’s weekend drastically improved on Sunday when he qualified P4 after a wet, disrupted qualifying session. Gasly, on the hand, qualified P15. He subsequently started the race from P13 after Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz were handed penalties.
Despite not being a favourite for the race, Ocon kept himself at the front of the grid, benefitting from Alpine’s risky but ultimately successful pitstop strategy. While the Frenchman led the race for several laps, holding off both Verstappen and Gasly, he was, ultimately no match for the now-four-time World Champion. Ocon subsequently finished P2, just under 19.5 seconds behind Verstappen. Gasly finished P3.
This was Ocon’s best race of the season, and arguably one of the best of his career. Though Verstappen emerged as the star of the show, Ocon was praised for his performance, including by Verstappen himself.
Unfortunately, it would be the last taste of success that the Frenchman would enjoy with the Enstone-based team.
A disappointing end to Ocon’s Alpine career
Despite his success in the São Paulo GP, Ocon soon experienced further disappointment when he qualified P11 in the Las Vegas GP. Gasly, on the other hand qualified P3, ahead of the likes of Leclerc, Verstappen and Norris. While Ocon appeared content with his qualifying lap, he admitted that he had struggling with the pace of his A524. He claimed that this had been an issue since the US GP.
Team Principal Oliver Oakes, however, dismissed Ocon’s concerns. Despite the obvious difference between Ocon’s and Gasly’s performances, and despite Ocon’s drastic and surprising decline in performance after the Singapore GP, Oakes claimed that both cars were identical. Oakes further suggested that the disparity in performance between the drivers were due to differences in the driving styles.
Regardless of the reason behind this disparity in qualifying, Alpine would suffer a disappointing weekend. Gasly was unable to complete the race after an engine failure while Ocon finished P17 after a frankly, disastrous, pitstop which resulted in Ocon effectively serving a drive through penalty due to the Alpine team being unprepared for the pitstop.
Ocon would face further disappointment in Qatar when he finished P14 in the Sprint after a P17 start, and retired on the first lap of the race after a collision with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Williams Racing’s Franco Colapinto.
Ocon dropped for Abu Dhabi GP
The Frenchman would be denied the opportunity to finish the season with his team of five years. Ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP, Alpine confirmed that Ocon would be replaced by reserve driver Jack Doohan.
While Alpine and Oakes claimed that the decision to release Ocon early had been a mutual decision between the involved parties, Ocon appeared to disagree, claiming, via social media, that he had not wanted things to end the way that they had. That the decision had been unexpected appeared to be confirmed by Haas’ Team Principal Ayao Komatsu who claimed that he had not been aware that Alpine would use Ocon’s post-season test with Haas as leverage to have the driver forfeit his final race with the Enstone-based team.
Regardless of the intricacies of the decision, and the process though which it was made, this cost Ocon the opportunity to continue his fight in the 2024 Drivers’ Championship. He ultimately ended the season 14th with 23 points. His teammate Gasly, ended the season 10th with 42 points.
An Overview of Ocon’s 2024 season
Ocon’s season was, for the most part, unimpressive. This, as the driver himself admitted, was due, at least partially, to his own mistakes, the most memorable of which was that during the Monaco GP. However, it is unreasonable to deny that Ocon’s performance this season was limited by factors beyond his control. The A524 was not an ideal car, and the drama behind the scenes at Alpine have been no secret to anyone.
However, the reality is that Ocon, prior to the United States GP outperformed Gasly in 11 of the 18 races, though admittedly, Gasly suffered two retirements and did not start one race. Ocon, on the other hand, only suffered one early retirement, which, admittedly was a product of his own making. Ocon also outperformed Gasly in Brazil, though Alpine, if their social media activity is any indication, appears eager to forget this.
Then, of course, there is the matter of Ocon’s drop in performance after from the United States GP onward. Regardless of whether Ocon is to be believed or Oakes, it is difficult to deny that this drop was strange. After all, what are the odds that Ocon suddenly lost his driving ability as he entered his final races with Alpine?
Ultimately, Ocon did not have a perfect season, not was this anywhere near his best season in F1. However, despite the odds against him, and despite the limitations and challenges, even those of his own making, Ocon did score 23 points. For this reason, he ranks 13th in Pit Debrief’s F1 2024 driver rankings.
