Ocon Hits out as 2024 Williams Link Emerges
Jul.19 - Esteban Ocon has renewed his criticism of Alpine, as it emerges he even wanted to leave the team before the 2024 season is even complete.
Amid on and off-track conflicts with his fellow French teammate Pierre Gasly this year and behind-the-scenes trouble with team bosses, Ocon and Alpine announced at the beginning of June that they will part ways for 2025.
However, it is now emerging at the scene of the Hungarian GP that Ocon, 27, actually visited Williams' team headquarters recently for a seat fitting.
Blick newspaper, and its veteran F1 journalist Roger Benoit, say the plan was for Ocon to immediately replace the struggling Logan Sargeant at Williams - to help the team catch up with Alpine in the constructors' standings.
Unsurprisingly, Alpine would not agree to release Ocon from his 2024 contract, but Benoit thinks a Williams seat for the Frenchman after the summer break remains a possibility.
So in light of that development, Ocon insisted that a lot of Alpine's problems this year was because the team refused to listen to the drivers "for years" about how to improve performance.
"There are a lot of things that were not done as they should have been," he said in Budapest. "We (drivers) all said things about the development of the car. A lot of the problems were there a few years ago."
Meanwhile, despite his new links with Williams, Ocon is actually fully expected to move to Haas next year, replacing long-time team driver Kevin Magnussen.
Haas boss Ayao Komatsu said: "I take nothing away from all the contributions and fantastic input Kevin has given to the team to get it to where we are now. What was lacking was consistency. That was the biggest factor."
The Japanese admits that signing rookie Oliver Bearman for 2025 was a factor in the decision, with Haas expected to announce the Ocon news shortly.
"If you look at Nico (Hulkenberg) and Kevin, when it comes to providing a consistent reference, I need a driver closer to Nico's consistency," Komatsu said.
"But the difference between Kevin and Nico is very small," he insisted. "The results and the number of points may look quite different in the end, but the decisive factor for the difference is not great.
"So it was difficult decision to make regarding Kevin."
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The seat-fitting claim was unfounded, with his factory visit simply about an evaluation conversation, which will probably also happen (if it already hasn't) with other drivers, so hardly newsworthy, not to mention misleading.
He's never been a strong contender at any point, & was always going to finish the season with Alpine anyway + Williams hasn't even intended to make in-season changes in the first place, & James responded directly to this matter by making clear what the meeting was solely about & that their paths won't cross, either for this season or beyond, & also made clear again that they aren't planning to make any driver changes during this season, etc.
Ocon will drive for Haas from next season, with the switch as clear as all but confirmed, only becoming clearer & clearer as the summer has progressed.
Bottas has clearly been Williams' second preference after Sainz & with seemingly either Mercedes or Alpine the latter's most likely destination, the former is Sargeant's most likely replacement.