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Esteban Ocon will drive for Haas in 2025 after securing his Formula 1 future with a multi-year deal.
The 27-year-old and Alpine mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the 2024 season after the Frenchman had spent five seasons with the Enstone squad.
Ocon will be team-mate at Haas to Britain’s Oliver Bearman, the 19-year-old whose multi-year deal with the team was announced on the eve of the British Grand Prix, and is reunited with team principal Ayao Komatsu, who was engineer for the Frenchman’s first F1 test with Lotus in 2014.
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Alpine boss Bruno Famin says they came to the end of the ‘cycle’ with Ocon, which has resulted in the French driver leaving the team at the end of the season
“I am thrilled to embark on this new chapter in my Formula 1 career and join MoneyGram Haas F1 Team from the start of the 2025 season,” Ocon said.
“I’ll be joining a very ambitious racing team, whose spirit, work ethic, and undeniable upward trajectory has really impressed me.
“On a more personal note, I’m very happy to be working with Ayao again, as he’s been a part of my debut when I first stepped into a Formula 1 car during my Lotus Junior days more than 10 years ago.
“MoneyGram Haas F1 Team has exciting plans and clear targets for the future, and I’m very much looking forward to working with everyone in Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello, and being part of this great project.”
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Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, David Croft and Simon Lazenby explain the reasons for Ocon’s departure from Alpine
Ocon’s arrival means Haas will field an all-new driver line-up in 2025. Nico Hulkenberg has already signed for Audi-backed Sauber, but Kevin Magnussen is now currently without a drive and his F1 future appears in major doubt.
Magnussen has driven for Haas for seven seasons across two spells.
Haas are enjoying a much-improved 2024 season and currently sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship on 27 points and the American-owned team had previously announced they had extended their long-standing Ferrari engine partnership to 2028.
“I’m delighted we’ve secured Esteban Ocon’s services for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” Komatsu said. “I’ve obviously been aware of his talents for a long time and our personal history dates back to Esteban’s maiden run in a Formula 1 car.
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British teenager Oliver Bearman has signed a multi-year contract with Haas and will be a permanent fixture on the 2025 Formula 1 grid
“He displayed his talents back then coming off the back of strong performances in the junior categories – he’d just won the 2014 European Formula 3 Championship. Esteban’s gone on to become an established talent in Formula 1 and, of course, a Grand Prix winner.
“It was vital we had a driver with experience in beside Oliver Bearman next year, but Esteban’s only 27 – he’s still young with a lot to prove as well. I think we have a hungry, dynamic driver pairing and I look forward to welcoming Esteban into MoneyGram Haas F1 Team for 2025.”
Will Ocon prove a ‘difficult team-mate’ for Bearman?
Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater on Esteban Ocon’s move to Haas:
“The significant aspect, from a British perspective, is Ocon will partner British teenager Oliver Bearman, who enters his debut season with Haas next year.
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A look back on all the times Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has been involved in a collision with his team-mate
“Ocon does have a bit of a reputation for being a difficult team-mate to get along with. One of the reasons, perhaps, he is leaving Alpine is that he and Pierre Gasly did not get along particularly well and had a number of flashpoints – including most recently at the Monaco Grand Prix. But he had conflict, also, before with Fernado Alonso.
“Maybe it’s a little bit of an undeserved reputation. Ocon has not had it easy getting into Formula 1; his family are of very normal means, he’s had to fight to get to the pinnacle of motorsport and had to endure a season outwith the sport when Lance Stroll came into Racing Point to replace him.
“The significant thing for Haas is that, for the first time, they have a winner on their books. Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and, as he says himself, they are a team on an upwards trajectory.”
The action continues this weekend with the final race before F1’s summer break, the Belgian Grand Prix. You can watch every session from Spa-Francorchamps live on Sky Sports F1.
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