F1 News: Alpine Drops Esteban Ocon As Driver Replaced For Abu Dhabi

Esteban Ocon is being replaced by Jack Doohan for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he prepares to depart the Alpine Formula 1 team ahead of the season’s end.

Nov 23, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; BWT Alpine driver Esteban Ocon (31) is introduced before the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Update: Sky Sports F1 confirms that Alpine will replace Esteban Ocon with Jack Doohan for Abu Dhabi. They report that Ocon had been requesting to be replaced in order to race for Haas in the season finale, who he is driving for full-time next year, however, this has not been confirmed.

According to Autosport, Esteban Ocon's tenure with the Alpine Formula 1 team is set to conclude early with Jack Doohan replacing him for the season finale in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

The decision for Ocon to leave his Alpine seat before the final race of the season comes on the heels of a challenging period highlighted by a recent incident at the Qatar Grand Prix. In a race that saw him exiting on the first lap, Ocon was involved in a collision with Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg. This incident, a setback in his otherwise strong racing season, may have hastened Alpine's decision to bring in Doohan for the season finale.

Doohan, the son of five-time 500cc MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan, will make the move ahead of his rookie season with the team next year when he will race alongside Pierre Gasly.

Ocon's early exit from Alpine, however, is ahead of his move to the Haas team for the 2025 season. The move to the American team comes after several impactful years at Alpine, which began when he joined the team — then branded as Renault — in 2020. During his time with the team, Ocon notched up his first and only Grand Prix victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2021.

Alpine is yet to officially confirm the news that Ocon will be out of his seat next weekend.

Unfortunately, Ocon retired from the Qatar Grand Prix due to a crash with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto on the opening lap. Speaking to the media following the race, Ocon explained:

“It was wrong place, wrong time I think. 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.

“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 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.

“It’s important to look ahead and see what we can prepare for the future.”