Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
10:01 p.m., December 1, 2024
Departing for the Haas team next season, Esteban Ocon has cast doubt on his participation in the last Grand Prix of the season, next week in Abu Dhabi. Upon arrival in Qatar, the Frenchman thanked his mechanics and engineers at length.
Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) strongly thanked his mechanics and engineers on Sunday after his early retirement from the Qatar Grand Prix, leaving doubt over his participation in the last GP of the Formula 1 season next weekend in Abu Dhabi. “Not much to say about this race… I would like to thank the mechanics, the 'engineers' for all their efforts on this race, but also especially throughout the rest of the year. It was an important word for me because in difficult times, we continued to push and I wanted to thank them for that,” declared the 28-year-old pilot on Canal+.
The Alpine team has indicated that it “has no comment to make”
Asked how he would approach the last race, he replied “We'll see” after a long silence. Several media, including the newspaper L'Équipe and the specialized website Motorsport.com indicate that the Norman should not compete in the last Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi. Departing for Haas, Ocon would leave his seat to Australian Jack Doohan who will succeed him in 2025 in order to be able to participate in the end-of-season tests in the single-seater of the American team two days after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Contacted by AFP, the Alpine team indicated that it “had no comment to make” on the subject. On Sunday, the race came to an end for the Norman, who started in last position and had to abandon after a collision with the Argentinian Franco Colapinto (Williams) and the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) at the first corner of what will probably be his last race with the Franco-British team. Arriving in 2020 at the Alpine team, then called Renault, Ocon competed in 106 Grands Prix there and scored four podiums, including a victory, the only one of his career in F1, in Hungary in 2021.
This season, he is in 14th position in the drivers' standings, thanks in particular to his unexpected second place in the flood at the Brazilian GP in early November.
