In 2024, Formula One said goodbye, or at least a see-you-later, to several drivers – Logan Sargeant whose disastrous stint with Williams Racing came to a fiery end in Zandvoort, Daniel Ricciardo whose disappointing return to F1 ended in Singapore, and of course the likes of Kevin Magnussen, Zhou Guanyu, Sargeant’s replacement Franco Colapinto and Sergio Pérez who find themselves without a contract as the calendar year nears its end. Then, of course, there are the drivers – Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson, who will be seeking their fortunes with a new team, and Valtteri Bottas who will return to Mercedes albeit as a third driver.
Regardless, the 2024 season has brought a fair number of farewells and, to be quite frank, some teams have done a far better job of saying goodbye to their drivers than others.
The business of goodbye: Sainz at Ferrari versus Ocon at Alpine
The contrast between how teams bid farewell to drivers leaving for rival teams is striking, especially when comparing the treatment of Carlos Sainz at Scuderia Ferrari compared to the dismissal of Esteban Ocon by Alpine.
As spectators, we know that there are aspects of both cases that are unknown to us, and will likely remain so. We also know that it is unfair to assume that the relationships between Ocon and Alpine matched that between Sainz and Ferrari. However, these details are not the spectator’s concern. To the spectator, what matters is what the teams and drivers present to us, and what we can interpret.
From an outsider’s perspective, the situation is straightforward: both drivers are leaving teams they’ve raced for over several seasons. However, Ferrari supported Sainz throughout the season and celebrated his accomplishments. Aalpine, on the other hand, abruptly cast aside Ocon. This stark difference in treatment understandably leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many observers.
F1 a show
For fans, F1 is about the show. It is the show that millions tune in to watch. It is the show that drives the sport’s skyrocketing popularity and puts money in the pockets of the teams, sponsors, executives and everyone in between.
No one, of course, is denying that there are fans who enjoy the sport solely for the raw sport itself. Those are the fans who can watch the most boring race with the same love and enthusiasm that they would the most exciting. Those are the fans who could not care less about who drives the car or who runs the team as long as the cars are driven and the teams run. But, those are not the only fans, especially not in this day. Realistically, and as hard as it may be for many to hear, the majority of fans watch and follow F1 for the show. The sport grows because of the show.
The faces of F1
The drivers, regardless of opinions on them, are part of the show. They are the faces of the sport and in many cases, the voices. At the end of the day, it is the drivers for whom the majority of fans cheer and cry for. The drivers are a vital part of the show. They are more than just faceless, voiceless employees who can be dismissed without anyone noticing or caring. To think otherwise is to discredit and disregard the experiences of millions of fans around the world.
Fans know, of course, that F1 is a business. Most, if not all of them understand that. But, F1 targets the emotions. It thrives off the emotional attachments between fans, drivers, teams and everyone else involved. Those attachments deserve respect and frankly, far too many teams seem to have forgotten that this season. Ferrari, it appears, was not one of them.
Ferrari sends Sainz off in style
In January 2024, Ferrari revealed that seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton would join the team for the 2025 season, replacing Carlos Sainz. The announcement came as a shock, including to Sainz who had been almost certain he would continue with Ferrari.
Naturally, Ferrari faced criticism for how they handled the announcement. However, while Ferrari may not have handled the announcement of Sainz’s exit in an ideal manner, the same cannot be said for their treatment of him throughout the season.
In fact, Ferrari allowed him to compete on relatively equal terms with his teammate, Charles Leclerc. And while the team, justifiably, may not have prioritized Sainz in their development, they rarely left him at a disadvantage. Sainz earned his third and fourth career wins with Ferrari this season, and the team celebrated him as a Ferrari driver, not a Ferrari driver expected to leave at the end of the season. Even with the season over, and with the year nearing its end, Ferrari continued to celebrate Sainz, highlighting his many accomplishments on their social media pages. Sainz was never the second driver, even when, arguably, he should have been. He was simply a Ferrari driver and he leaves as such.
Ferrari thanks Sainz for his contributions to the team
Of course, if there was any doubt of Ferrari’s intention to send the Spaniard off in style, their treatment of him during the off-season should have dispelled it. The team, including Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur and Sainz’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, hosted a track day at their Fiorano Circuit in mid-December, allowing the younger Sainz to share the track with his father, Carlos Sainz Sr, as he said goodbye to the team with which he has raced for four seasons. This event, as described by Vasseur, was “the best way to thank all of them” for their contributions to the team.
Compared to other teams which struggled to post a half-decent farewell post on social media, Ferrari’s farewell to Sainz may as well have been a masterclass.
The farewell by Alpine for Ocon a ‘disaterclass’ compared to the farewell for Sainz at Ferrari
If Ferrari’s farewell to Sainz was a masterclass in how to send a driver off in style, Alpine’s farewell to Ocon was the exact opposite, a “disasterclass.”
No one will deny that by the time of his last race with them, Ocon’s relationship with Alpine had significantly deteriorated. Regardless of what either party had to say about the matter, it was plainly obvious to even the casual observer that there was tension between the team and driver. That said, Alpine’s farewell to Ocon was abysmal at best, and they earned every bit of the online criticism received as a result of it.
Ocon’s difficult season with Alpine
Ocon has had a difficult season with Alpine and while the incident with teammate Pierre Gasly in Monaco certainly did not help the decaying relationship between driver and team, Ocon cannot be held solely responsible for the tumultuous end to his five-year stint with Alpine.
Ocon’s 2024 season was, for the most part, unimpressive, due to a combination of the driver’s own mistakes, and more than that, the limitations of the A524 and the less-than-secret drama behind the scenes at Alpine. However, while Gasly outperformed Ocon in the Drivers’ Championship by 21 points, prior to the United States GP, Ocon had arguably been the better driver. He had outperformed Gasly in 11 of the 18 races.
As a matter of fact, had Ocon not experienced a frankly suspicious drop in his performance from the United States GP onward, perhaps there would have been a different conversation to be had. But, of course, no one, at least on the outside, can be certain as to why Ocon appeared to suddenly lose his diving ability. Ocon himself attributed the issues to technical problems with his A524. Alpine’s Team Principal, Oliver Oakes, on the other hand, offered a different narrative, maintaining that both cars were identical, and the variance in performance was a result of differing driving styles.
While it is common for drivers to experience fluctuations in performance, and frankly, expected that Alpine would choose to prioritise Gasly, and even the incoming Jack Doohan, the scale of Ocon’s drop-off raised many questions as to the factors truly at play. Ultimately, fans, pundits, and onlookers of all sorts can only speculate.
Alpine drops Ocon for the Abu Dhabi GP
What is undeniable, however, is that as the season progressed, the relationship between Alpine and Ocon soured further and further, ultimately resulting in Ocon’s frankly dismal dismissal from Alpine a race early. Unlike Sainz, who said goodbye to Ferrari amid much pomp and circumstance, Alpine hurried Ocon out the door as if he had not earned the team their first and only race win.
The decision to drop Ocon was a mess of its own. Alpine and Oakes insisted that the decision to release Ocon early had been a mutual decision between the involved parties. They claimed that the decision allowed Ocon to begin his next chapter with Haas while enabling his replacement, Doohan, to begin his new chapter as an Alpine driver.
However, Ocon appeared to disagree with the team’s claim. Instead, he claimed, via social media, that he had not wanted things to end the way that they had. He even showed off what appeared to be the helmet that he had planned to wear in Abu Dhabi as a tribute to the team.
More than that, it appeared as if neither Ocon nor Haas had been aware of any plan to leverage Ocon’s post-season test with the Kannapolis-based team. Haas’ Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu described the decision as unexpected, claiming that he had been unaware that Alpine would use the post-season test to have the driver forfeit his final race with the Enstone-based team.
Alpine apparently eager to forget Ocon’s contributions
Regardless, unlike Sainz, Ocon did not compete in Abu Dhabi, and from the way that Alpine presented it on their social media, they were hardly upset about it. As a matter of fact, Alpine appears was all too happy to forget that Ocon had ever driven for the team. After all, if you look at the team’s social media pages, it would be easy to forget that it was Ocon not Gasly who earned the team’s best result this season. It was Ocon not Gasly who finished P2 in in the 2024 São Paulo GP that the team recalls so fondly.
Of course, there are matters of contracts and image rights and the like. After all, Ocon’s contract, unlike that of Sainz, was terminated early. However, love him or hate him, Ocon deserved more than a two-line thank-you message on social media. He deserved more than to only be invited back to say goodbye to the members of the team who had supported him after Alpine was heavily criticised for denying him the opportunity.
A new age for F1
Ultimately, it is impossible to know every single detail and circumstance that created the differences between the treatment of Sainz and Ocon in their final season with their respective teams. Only those parties involved can ever truly know that. However, as said before, F1 is a show and it is one that plays out in front of the public’s eyes.
Sainz’s final season with Ferrari
From the perspective of an onlooker, Sainz’s final season with Ferrari was a memorable and successful one. He was given the resources that he needed to produce good results, and when the season ended, Ferrari celebrated the driver who earned them four race wins and twenty-five podium finishes across their four-year journey. They thanked him and his family for their contributions to the team. Ferrari showed that Sainz had been a valuable member of their team. Whether he was or was not, is not a matter for the onlookers to concern themselves with.
Ocon’s final season with Alpine
Alpine, on the other hand, showed themselves as ruthless, and arguably ungrateful. No one is denying that the team should not look out for its own interests. F1, after all, is a business and business can be cruel. Perhaps, the benefits of running Doohan, as controversial as the idea seems, outweighed the value of giving Ocon a proper final race.
However, for all that F1 is a business, it is reliant on the passion and emotions of its fans. By denying Ocon the opportunity to bid a proper goodbye to the team with which he had raced for five years, Alpine had, whether they intended to or not, denied their fans to say goodbye to Ocon. Maybe he will not leave the sport as so many other drivers have but he will be racing with a rival. For some fans, their support of him will remain. For others, their loyalty to Alpine will come first.
The power of perception
F1 is ruthless. It prioritises profits and gains above all else. But, like it or not, this is a new age. This is the age where perception drives passion and emotion drives enthusiasm. At the end of the day, it is one thing to be perceived as ruthless; it is another to be perceived as ungrateful.
Ferrari has shown that they are grateful for Sainz’s contributions to their team. They have shown that while they have had to make the decision that they believe to be best for their business, they valued Sainz’s contributions throughout their partnership. Alpine, on the other hand, have shown that it is not an unfair judgement to think of them as disorganised, dysfunctional or cruel. They have shown that the contributions of their drivers mean little to them and that they are willing to jeopardise their own success out of spite.
Again, perhaps neither of these assessments is true. Perhaps some details show that Ocon was treated better in his final season with Alpine than Sainz at Ferrari. However, again, it is not the observer’s responsibility to know these details, to consider them or to even consider the possibility to them. But, at the end of the day, both Ferrari and Alpine have put on a show in front of a global audience. That audience can only percieve what they are shown.
