Esteban Ocon is likely to give way to Jack Doohan for the final F1 race in Abu Dhabi, as talks have taken place to allow him to test the Haas.
Despite the unexpected podium in Brazil, it hasn’t been going well for Alpine’s Ocon in the races especially against teammate Pierre Gasly, who has scored bulk of its points which includes another big one in Qatar, that has allowed the team to be back in sixth in the standings.
Ocon hasn’t been pleased and has raised queries about the disparities as well. But his main goal apart from trying to score has been to see-through the remaining races before his Haas move. But his association with Alpine is most likely to end early in Qatar itself amid background discussions.
Ocon had an early exit from the Qatar weekend where he was involved in a Lap 1 incident alongside Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colaptino, which was initiated by the German but deemed as racing incident. Speaking to media after his early end, the Frenchman thanked the whole team for the grand prix and the season on the whole.
That unknowingly provided hints about potential discussions, which wasn’t denied by any parties involved. “It was wrong place, wrong time I think,” Ocon started. “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. 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. 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 am not going to talk about that [discussions after qualifying lack], but yeah it’s important to look ahead and see what we can prepare for the future,” summed up Ocon. It was then the speculation about the Frenchman giving up his seat popped up.
The idea floated that he would give up the seat to Jack Doohan in Abu Dhabi in exchange of undertaking the test with Haas in Abu Dhabi. When asked to Alpine boss Oliver Oakes if they would have allowed him to test without Ocon giving up his Abu Dhabi seat, he put that towards Flavio Briatore as the decision maker rather than him.
But on the main topic of Qatar being Ocon’s last event, Oakes more or less confirmed about the ongoing talks between Briatore and Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, who has had involvement in the Frenchman’s career. Oakes feels it is a good step for people involved in the case and suits everyone on it.
It gives Ocon a chance to look at his future, while Doohan will get a taste of full F1 weekend before his full season. “I think there’s been a discussion, I don’t think there’s been a definitive answer yet, but it has been talked about,” said Oakes to media. “It’s obviously slightly complex because as much as he is ours, he is obviously contractually a Mercedes driver as well. And obviously, he’d like to be released early as well.
“I think there’s still some conversions to go through tonight and maybe tomorrow morning. But I think it all seems to be moving in a direction that might be a good solution for everybody. Let’s see. I think it comes from all sides really. I guess you could say it’s good to get Jack in early. I think you could say from Esteban’s side it’s good to move on early. I think it suits everybody.
“So I think the discussion is quite natural really. Honestly, Esteban’s been a big part of this team as well and, from both sides, it suits each other. I don’t think that’s [constructors’] gone into the sort…the last 24 hours of discussions. I think obviously as soon as Esteban announced that he was off to Haas, obviously you always have a constant sanity check of what’s the right solution and I think the constructors’ championship was into the discussion, but it wasn’t the whole object.
“And I think each weekend, we are seeing hell of a swing, it is not like you could plan for either scenarios either,” summed up Oakes, who noted that ever since Ocon announced his move towards Haas, this doesn’t comes as a surprise. “I think you could say that [earlier disagreements have] a part to play,” he continued. “But I think really the bigger part is sort of a natural evolution really, he’s moving on [next year].
“Does it suit both of us to do it just a bit earlier for the last round or not? And from the other side, it’s also you could look at it as it’s advantageous to get Jack in the team working with everybody and get those butterflies gone now rather than next year in Australia somewhat. I think really it’s probably that it just seems to suit everybody, and let’s have a discussion on it.
“It doesn’t mean it needs to be confirmed either way. I think Toto and Flavio have a really good relationship, so I’m sure they’ll do what’s right for each other there,” summed up Oakes, as Wolff gave his approval on the proposal as well but didn’t wish to officially confirm as further talks about the contract was being looked at before being made official.
“I think first of all there’s a contractual relationship that Esteban and he have with Alpine on drivers’ side, and that contract expires at the end of the year,” said Wolff. “That’s the basic. If you agree that for the benefit of the future, there’s a better solution that allows Esteban to get ready earlier for Haas and that depends on driving or not in Abu Dhabi, I think this is something which is we discussed today, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow [potentially].”
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