Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, BWT Alpine F1 Team confirmed that Pierre Gasly would continue with them on a new multi-year contract. This announcement, which comes less than a month after the team confirmed that they would be parting ways with Gasly’s teammate, Esteban Ocon, as well as that by Aston Martin F1 team confirming Lance Stroll’s seat “into the 2026 regulations”, further shrinks the pool of available seats, increasing the uncertainty over several drivers’ future in the sport.
One driver who has yet to confirm his plans for 2025 is Esteban Ocon. While the Frenchman has expressed optimism since the news of his exit from Alpine was confirmed, a formal announcement has yet to be made.
Ocon was today asked whether he had any updates on the progress of his contract negotiations. The driver said that he and his team were in deep conversation with potential future employers and that he was confident with his future.
“We are in deep conversations at the moment. Discussions are going well at the moment. I’m confident with the future, and hopefully, it will be sorted soon and announced.”
However, Ocon admitted that his future could not be guaranteed until a contract was signed and recalled his experience in 2018. The team dropped him in favour of Lance Stroll as the Canadian’s father became an investor in the squad.
It’s served as warning to the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix winner not to take anything for granted.
“I’m confident, but as you said, until it’s not signed. I was confident as well at the end of 2018, but for different reasons, it didn’t work out, but yeah, we have the experience of that.”
The Frenchman was asked whether his experience in 2018 had changed the way that he had approached his current situation, despite the different circumstances.
Ocon agreed that he had been more proactive during his recent negotiations, adding that he did not want a repeat of his 2018 situation. He reiterated his belief that his future would be decided soon.
“Yes, for sure. We at no cost want to leave that again. But no, as I said, it’s going well at the moment. There’s a lot of deep discussions going on. It should be sorted soon, hopefully.”
When asked about his options and whether there was any priority to them, Ocon confirmed that he had many options but declined to comment on any priority associated with them.
“There are, yes, many options, but I will not comment on what priority.”
Ocon was also asked for his opinion on Valtteri Bottas’ comments about the situation in the drivers’ market being “weird” due to many decisions being seemingly dependent on a single driver.
The Finnish driver says that negotiations within the current driver market were seemingly dependant on both driver performance and other matters. Bottas’ comments echo those of Kevin Magnussen who, during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, expressed that negotiations affecting his and other drivers’ futures were being affected by Carlos Sainz, who he described as “the cork in the bottle.”
The Frenchman stated that he did not think that the driver market had ever been “straightforward” and added that contract negotiations had always focused on aspects other than just driver performance.
“I think it’s never been straightforward. The market’s always been very strange. There’s always been reasons, not only on [the] performance side.”
He added that there “were a lot of things going on” but stated that he preferred to race rather than to speak about such matters. While he describes such aspects of the negotiations as “silly”, he admitted that it was interesting to see how other factors could impact these negotiations.
However, he stated that he believed that one’s future in the sport was still mostly dependent on performance and expressed that it allowed him to remain hopeful for the sport’s future.
“I think it’s never been straightforward. The market’s always been very strange. There’s always been reasons, not only on performance side. There’s been a lot of things going on.
“I honestly don’t think it is my favourite area of talking. I prefer to race on track than talking about that, but it is a big thing, for sure.
“It’s always been a very silly thing in Formula 1, these driver market topics, but it is interesting when you get in there. It’s interesting to have the views of very high-end people on many different things, but in the end, it turns out to be mostly on performance. It’s not only on that, but it’s still mostly on performance, so I still have hope for the sport.”
