Esteban Ocon lifts lid on Alpine exit reasons in ‘not possible’ circumstances reveal

Haas F1 2025 signing Esteban Ocon has revealed Alpine’s failure to address long-standing technical weaknesses played a role in his decision to leave the team for next season.

Haas announced on Thursday that Ocon will join the team in F1 2025, with the Frenchman partnering Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman in a new-look driver lineup.

Esteban Ocon frustrated by Alpine shortcomings prior to Haas F1 2025 switch

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Ocon will leave Alpine after a five-year stint at the Enstone-based team, with whom he claimed both his first F1 podium finish (Sakhir 2020) and maiden career victory (Hungary 2021).

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Ocon revealed that he opted to leave Alpine “a long time ago” and cited the team’s lack of improvement in certain technical areas as a factor in his decision.

Those weaknesses, he says, have been troubling Alpine for “three years” and remain on the team’s F1 2024 car, which has collected just nine points across the first 13 races of the season.

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Ocon said: “The decision for me was quite clear.

“[I decided] quite a long time ago that I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to write my story – my own story – and obviously five years in Formula 1 with the same team is a long time in Formula 1 terms.

“We’ve achieved good things, we’ve achieved things a little bit more difficult at times.

“For sure, this season has been frustrating. It’s not a secret to anyone, no one’s happy inside the team about where we are and there hasn’t been enough of an improvement on some terms, on some technical issues, that we had years ago.

“That circle of technical development and improvement, we haven’t been on top of that and we are facing the issues that we had already three years ago with the current car, which is not possible in terms of Formula 1 world.

“But I wish this team the best. It’s a team that will forever stay in my heart. I’ve achieved, and we’ve achieved together, my first podium, my first win and it’s always going to remain special in my heart.

“I wish them the best for the future but, before that, we still have half the season to finish and I hope that I can do the best to finish on a high with this team.”

Ocon revealed that he had been seeking an Alpine exit from the middle of last season, adding: “There’s obviously been a lot of conversations going around the paddock. That is quite clear.

“This conversation [with Haas] started quite a long time ago already. Mid-season of ’23 is really when things started.”

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