Esteban Ocon is unlikely to compete in the final GP of the 2024 season with Alpine. Flavio Briatore has made the decision. The Frenchman is free to join Haas as soon as the 2024 season ends, and Jack Doohan will be tested over the length of a Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.
Esteban Ocon is probably not going to compete in the last Grand Prix of the season with Alpine in Abu Dhabi, handing over his steering wheel to Jack Doohan, the driver chosen by Flavio Briatore, the special advisor to the Alpine team, to join the French team next season.
The more than insistent rumor had swelled in the Losail (Qatar) paddock this Sunday. The absence of a denial from the elusive Oliver Oakes, the team principal of Alpine, stating he was “not aware of anything,” did not help to plug the leaks. Nor did the strange thanks given a few minutes earlier, on Canal+, by the Norman driver to his mechanics. As if the season was over and he was saying a final goodbye.
A tacit agreement between Ocon and Alpine?
A seriously lacking exit, but one that both parties will try to justify by invoking a tacit agreement, allowing the Frenchman to participate in the post-season test at Yas Marina with Haas, just the day after the last GP of 2024 – and this without waiting for the start of the calendar year 2025 -, and Alpine to test Jack Doohan over a race weekend.
