Esteban Ocon is set to part company with Alpine ahead of next weekend’s F1 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, PlanetF1.com understands.
Ocon announced earlier this year that he join Haas on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, having raced for Alpine (then Renault) since the start of the 2020 season.
The Frenchman was eliminated on the opening lap of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix following a collision with Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg, with PlanetF1.com learning that this weekend is to be Ocon’s final appearance for Alpine.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after his retirement, Ocon made the point of thanking his engineers and mechanics during the F1 2024 season.
He said: “It was wrong place, wrong time I think. Racing incident unfortunately.
“I think we were all on the outside, started to get quite narrow. And unfortunately, we were already outside of the track when the collision occurred.
“Unfortunately it’s an incident and a short race for us. Not something that we wanted, but I would like to thank the team for their hard work over this race and their hard work over the whole year.
“When it’s going well, it’s good to stick together.
“But when it’s not going so well the engineers and the mechanics stick together and that’s the most important thing.
“I passed already Franco. I was on the left side of Nico. He was on the hard [tyre] so it was always going to be something like this, but unfortunately a short one for us.
“It’s important to look ahead and see what we can prepare for the future.”
It is believed that Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan could step up to replace Ocon for the final race of F1 2024.
The Australian was signed as Ocon’s replacement at August’s Dutch Grand Prix, but his future has been the subject of fresh doubt over recent weeks with Alpine understood to be interested in Colapinto.
Ocon’s relationship with Alpine has been under the microscope throughout a fraught F1 2024, with then-team principal Bruno Famin publcly critical of the 28-year-old following a collision with Gasly in Monaco.
Ocon was briefly linked with a mid-season switch to Williams, with team boss James Vowles confirming over the summer that Ocon had undergone a seat fit at the team’s Grove factory before deciding on Colapinto as Logan Sargeant’s replacement.