Esteban Ocon attacks Alpine: “They decided, it’s sad.” And Oliver Oakes responds. Tensions flare between French driver Esteban Ocon and his now former team, Alpine.

Team Change at Alpine
The official announcement of Jack Doohan’s early debut with Alpine heated up the F1 paddock as it approached the Abu Dhabi weekend. Esteban Ocon unexpectedly ended his time with the French team, just hours after the incident at the start (in which he was an innocent victim of Nico Hulkenberg‘s error) that forced him out of the Lusail race. Without being able to properly say goodbye to the mechanics and engineers he had worked with for five years—having joined the team in 2020 when it was still Renault—the 28-year-old was not even able to wear the celebratory Alpine helmet he had prepared for his final race of the season.

Esteban Ocon and Alpine’s Decision
After publishing a long farewell letter on social media, Esteban Ocon spoke to French TV channel Canal+ to explain how the decision to end his contract early was made unilaterally by Alpine: “It’s a bit of a sad ending because, after five years of collaboration with the team, I wanted to thank all the people who worked with me at Viry and Enstone. But it was the team’s decision. It was important for my future to be able to drive with my next team during the Abu Dhabi tests, and they wouldn’t have allowed me to do that if I had raced this last event. So, we decided not to race the final GP to start the next chapter in the best way possible.”

Oliver Oakes’ Response
Team principal Oliver Oakes also provided an explanation of the decision in an interview with L’Equipe: “Without being harsh, Esteban Ocon’s contribution to the team has been limited recently. He’s scored few points and often been eliminated in Q1. Moreover, we can’t forget that he’ll be driving for the team with whom we are fighting for sixth place in the championship. So, it’s good that, in this way, there are no doubts (about a potential conflict of interest). We’re not here to be nice, and I don’t agree with what I’ve read about how we treated Esteban.”

“In any case,” added the 36-year-old Englishman, “we’re here to race. In the end, he’ll be driving for another team, and I only care about Alpine. We need to move forward. People don’t know the whole story, so it’s easy to comment from behind a keyboard. Esteban has been an important part of this team, but every chapter must end to start a new one. We kept our word, and he’ll be able to test with Haas. We are acting in the team’s best interest, and it was very important for Jack to drive the car now to prepare as best as possible for the next season. It will also be good for Esteban to start building relationships with the people he’ll work with next year.”