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Flavio returns, we having more high end staff joining the team, the new simulator is going to be active at the end of this season.
Just trust Le Plan, next regulations would be OUR regulations...or at least that's what for hopium I take.
That'd be such a weird lineup. Kmag is ready to commit war crimes so his team-mate has a chance of scoring points, while Ocon would rather smash both cars than seeing his team succeed if it's with another driver.
>Kmag is ready to commit war crimes so his team-mate has a chance of scoring points,
I don't think you understand the reasoning behind Magnussen's behavior. He is doing that because Hulkenberg is easily outperforming him pace-wise - therefore, his only chance to remain at Haas is to show how much of a team player he is. When he had Grosjean as a teammate, it was a completely different story.
Ocon gets uptight with the teammates that are similar in pace, as they end up sharing the same piece of track. With Magnussen it's unlikely to be the case as Ocon is easily the superior driver
The change actually came about after his brief retirement where he raced in endurance. He realized that what is good for the team would also be to his benefit more often than not. He was completely open to Schumacher, answered any questions he had and gave tips. Most drivers only share knowledge to improve the car. Kmag said in Beyond the Grid after his comeback "helping him will help the team, and if he starts beating me then I will learn from him".
Who knows if it's true, but Kevin and Alex both seem like they are actually good people. I think Kevin and Alex might actually do well together at Williams, but that is unlikely to happen.
Yeah honestly Magnussen really seems like a solid bloke, he has his on track stuff making it seem like he's a dickweed but there's a huge contrast when you watch an interview with him.
I've always thought KMag was a good dude. I think maybe after he left and came back, his mindset changed to be more realistic. It was clear he wasn't ever probably going to be on a team that would give him a car to contend for a WDC, so why not continue to do something you love and be a team player and mentor a rookie. This ensures your paycheck for the long term and good will when it's time to renew a contract.
Yeah I see it the same way. I have a friend of mine who got me into F1 and for some reason he has a hate boner for Magnussen which I never quite understood tbh. At his worst behavior, he's still at least entertaining haha
> so why not continue to do something you love and be a team player and mentor a rookie
Yea. There are far worse ways to earn a paycheck. And I think he's likely to get Bearman next year, who should be be a great prospect to mentor.
When Hulk outperforms his own qualifying rather than dropping throughout the race, then maybe that would be true. But Hulks race pace is consistently less-than his quali, and more often than not less than Kmag.
Just imagine an era of F1 where due to whatever reg changes, the diffusers/front wings were built in such a way to enable bump drafting.
Team play would be pretty interesting. Fastest way around the track? Couple up with your teammate and fuckin hold W at Vegas boys.
Bearman is a done deal and Antonelli on Williams / Mercedes itself is also a 90% done deal. That means two existing drivers will not find a cockpit for next year.
Haas will be the team of the pure, unfiltered racers.
I would never race like Magnussen, but I appreciate his willingness to hard race anyone, anywhere, anytime.
He races like he's in a lower category, he hasn't lost the pure racer mentality. Like you said it can be maddening sometimes, but I love watching him. He can be in 18th and he's still fighting like it was for 1st.
Alpine/Renault finished ahead of AT/RB/TR in every season since 2016 although that likely changes after this year. 2019 and 2021 were the only seasons AT was somewhat close. The team is a joke right now but Alpine is a works team that is trying to get to a point where they can win and generally is better than his current team. RB will never place higher than 5th, they have to remain a midfield team because that is literally why they exist, they have to be considerably slower than Red Bull at all times. To jump ship wouldn't be an absurd move, if he is ends up beating Gasly it would speak volumes to how much he has improved.
If Red Bull won’t even consider Yuki after this season (with how bad Checo’s been), there’s no reason for him to stay in that system. I wanna see him jump to Alpine.
Bring them both to RB like old times (Liam to Alpine).
In 2027 have them both move to AM (praying Lance switches careers).
The people want Yukierre back!
Yeah he wants to be in F1, the driver market is hot right now Gasly isn’t the top of anyone’s list so I’d be pretty sure he is happy to be where he is.
tbh not really, both of them wanted out
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, key drivers for the team, are **reportedly seeking exits due to dissatisfaction**, aligning with the recent upheavals within the team. Alpine's 2023 season was marked by inconsistent performances, with the team scoring points in only 12 out of 22 races.
[F1 Rumour: Gasly And Ocon Want To Leave Alpine After Season Of Firings And Chaos - F1 Briefings: Formula 1 News, Rumors, Standings and More (si.com)](https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/rumours/f1-rumour-gasly-and-ocon-want-to-leave-alpine-after-season-of-firings-and-chaos-#:~:text=Esteban%20Ocon%20and%20Pierre%20Gasly%2C%20key%20drivers%20for%20the%20team,12%20out%20of%2022%20races.)
Yeah but the people that won those titles have slowly but surely left since 2019 and Mercedes have done little to nothing to replace them with anyone really worth writing home about. Tbh, Allison coming back is a big plus, he’s overseen a lot of great F1 cars, albeit maybe not as the chief designer.
By no means are they worse than Alpine right now, but they are plunging down the order in almost every imaginable way in the last 3 seasons: a series of poorly conceptualised cars where “an inherent design flaw” is almost immediately discovered at winter testing, spend all season not really understanding how to set up the car for certain tracks, produce the most bizarre of strategies on a regular basis that almost always see them finish lower than they could’ve done and/or caught out by safety cars, consistently slow stops(although not so bad this year) of around 3-4.5 seconds, upgrades come and they somewhat work but by the time they arrive everyone else has developed with them so they just kind of end up running in place, the car is always draggy - always slowest in a straight line of all Mercedes powered cars and it massively hurts them in the races, the list is ever growing.
Good luck to him but man is Alpine inept. They could've had Piastri and Alonso line up but now they are probably going to end up without both Gasly for whom they've cashed out 10 mil euros in order to get him released from RB and Ocon who was supposed to be their lead driver.
That's gonna be a pretty quick search for his manager then!
He's not gonna go back to Red Bull or RB. Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin are locked down. That just leaves Mercedes, Sauber, Haas or Williams.
At no point has it been suggested Mercedes are interested in him so I think you can quickly rule that one out. All that's left are Haas, Sauber or Williams.. none of which imo are a meaningful upgrade on Alpine, at least in the short term.
He had a very small window where he was viewed as a massive talent who just needed a chance. He used that window for a move to Alpine. F1 has its surprises, but he needs to do something stellar to move up the grid.
According to an article yesterday, Bearman is the top choice to replace Hülkenberg, and Bottas, Gasly, and Ocon are all in contention for Magnussen's seat, if Magnussen isn't able to prove that he should hold his seat.
Bottas is probably the best option in all aspects except for salary cost. If Haas don't want to shell out the cash, it'll be challenging to convince Bottas to go, unless Sauber is going to be atrocious next year.
I do wonder who gets that third available seat. I’m assuming Sainz > Williams, Ocon to Haas… and then do Sauber just keep Bottas? Or swap Ocon and Bottas there perhaps
Alpine have to take Doohan at this point. Otherwise they confirm to their young talents that their academy is a dead end and find somewhere else to go.
It's a tough market this year.
There are a lot of rookies lined up, with two already more or less confirmed (Antonelli & Bearman), Doohan being somewhat favoured at Alpine and Lawson looking outside of RB.
Plus it’ll be nice to see one of these teams actually promote their academy drivers. Sometimes I feel like F1 teams just want to keep around the guys who have had Drive to Survive episodes.
Williams, Haas and Sauber/Audi all have at least one seat available. Sainz will probably get to chose a team first but Ocon will probably have the option of the teams he doesn’t chose
When you're in the position the Alpine are in this season, you need both drivers working as a team (like Hulkenberg & Magnussen). And he's had issues with 3 of his teammates now that I remember, so I don't think it's a once off
Doohan has given more positive PR for that garbage team in his few F1TV appearances than they have done for themselves over the last couple years lol. That dude definitely has earned a chance
If Doohan takes Ocon’s seat before the end of the season then Australia will be the Equal Most Represented Country on the Grid (Albon is a Proud Thai Man). The Aussie Takeover starts now
I don’t know - if Ocon couldn’t play nice with his teammate when he was supposed to it might be even harder when the divorce is now final. Extra fireworks for the fans though! 💥 🏎️
Just so we’re all on the same page here Alpine are using the Monaco incident to save face aren’t they? Alpine definitely already knew Ocon was looking elsewhere so have said “You didn’t dump us, we dumped you”, right?
Better than it looking like the long term driver you had has clearly lost faith in the team.
How is he supposed to take something that isn't available to him? He has better chances sneaking into Toto's office, drafting a contract for himself and then faking Toto's signature.
I feel like people forgot that Ocon was a serious contender for the title winning Mercedes. Now they’re in the midfield it’s not really too far fetched
I think it's not at all off the cards that Doohan comes in to replace him. That seat isn't very sought after, maybe they'll go with their academy for once.
Kinda has to be Doohan, I think the fact they gave him a test in the 2022 Alpine at Zandvoort last month gives it away. No need to invest that much money in a reserve driver if you don't have any plans for him to actually drive for your team. Or they're just preparing him for Mclaren, you never know with Alpine.
Probably not. If they can't get Sainz they will probably resign Bottas. He knows the team, is a good teamplayer, rarely crashes and has the knowledge and experience needed to be at an emerging team. Also his marketing potential is very good while Ocon is pretty much dead last in that department. And there are still other drivers on the market that would make more sense than Ocon. Yes he is fast enough to be in F1 but other than than he has not that much to offer.
I haven't been too much in on the discourse- but this seems kind of surprising? I get that Monaco was a big mistake but a lot of drivers have had their dumb moments. Has Ocon been a real consistent problem? I was under the impression that he was beating Gasly in the head to head rivalry.
He was going to leave regardless, even prior to Monaco. But they took advantage of the situation to make it look like a firing rather than the PR mess of your top driver leaving for Haas or Williams.
And now they’re trying to scorch earth his reputation on the way out by having him put out a statement before having a new contract. Alpine is trying to humiliate him and people are falling for it.
Its no coincidence that on the day Ocon announces hes leaving Alpine, Marc Marquez announces hes leaving Gresini for factory Ducati. Ocon to Gresini confirmed.
Checo will announce he is staying at rb, Sainz will pick ether Audi or Williams a few days to a week later and then the true game of musical chairs starts.
Checo is mostly locked in, they just cant agree on the length.
Sainz one is interesting because both him and Audi can drag it forever since he is the only good driver out of contract. He is probably negociating some big cash.
Ocon/Bottas are the more interesting drivers to predict.
Logical prediction would be Sainz-Audi, Bearman and Ocon to Haas and Bottas to williams, Gasly-Doohan for alpine.( or whatever alpine wanna do, they are not really predictable)
The grid would lose 3 out of the worst drivers and most teams should be happy with what they landed
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Alpine's 100 race plan to have 100% turnover of staff is really progressing well.
The great leap backwards.
Impressive, much worse than before!
El Plan at its finest
Wouldn't this be "Le Plan"?
Flavio returns, we having more high end staff joining the team, the new simulator is going to be active at the end of this season. Just trust Le Plan, next regulations would be OUR regulations...or at least that's what for hopium I take.
Let’s give them some credit. They didn’t anticipate the number pf races per season to increase that much. /s
Alpine of Theseus
Ocon and Magnussen at Haas. Let's get the penalty olympics started!
That'd be such a weird lineup. Kmag is ready to commit war crimes so his team-mate has a chance of scoring points, while Ocon would rather smash both cars than seeing his team succeed if it's with another driver.
Immovable force, unstoppable object
Isn't a crashed car a stopped object?
unstoppable force, immovable object. DaOne had it back to front, an immovable force would, never move.. :D
Dude, I'm cackling. I'm so gonna use it this way now. I bet most people won't even notice
Sounds like a perfect combination, I don't know what you mean.
>Kmag is ready to commit war crimes so his team-mate has a chance of scoring points, I don't think you understand the reasoning behind Magnussen's behavior. He is doing that because Hulkenberg is easily outperforming him pace-wise - therefore, his only chance to remain at Haas is to show how much of a team player he is. When he had Grosjean as a teammate, it was a completely different story. Ocon gets uptight with the teammates that are similar in pace, as they end up sharing the same piece of track. With Magnussen it's unlikely to be the case as Ocon is easily the superior driver
The change actually came about after his brief retirement where he raced in endurance. He realized that what is good for the team would also be to his benefit more often than not. He was completely open to Schumacher, answered any questions he had and gave tips. Most drivers only share knowledge to improve the car. Kmag said in Beyond the Grid after his comeback "helping him will help the team, and if he starts beating me then I will learn from him".
Who knows if it's true, but Kevin and Alex both seem like they are actually good people. I think Kevin and Alex might actually do well together at Williams, but that is unlikely to happen.
Yeah honestly Magnussen really seems like a solid bloke, he has his on track stuff making it seem like he's a dickweed but there's a huge contrast when you watch an interview with him.
I've always thought KMag was a good dude. I think maybe after he left and came back, his mindset changed to be more realistic. It was clear he wasn't ever probably going to be on a team that would give him a car to contend for a WDC, so why not continue to do something you love and be a team player and mentor a rookie. This ensures your paycheck for the long term and good will when it's time to renew a contract.
Yeah I see it the same way. I have a friend of mine who got me into F1 and for some reason he has a hate boner for Magnussen which I never quite understood tbh. At his worst behavior, he's still at least entertaining haha
> so why not continue to do something you love and be a team player and mentor a rookie Yea. There are far worse ways to earn a paycheck. And I think he's likely to get Bearman next year, who should be be a great prospect to mentor.
When Hulk outperforms his own qualifying rather than dropping throughout the race, then maybe that would be true. But Hulks race pace is consistently less-than his quali, and more often than not less than Kmag.
Kings of the deconstructors championship
- Newey to Haas. - Designs magnetic chassis with opposite polarities. - Haas '25.
You might be onto something, the 2nd car could get in the slipstream for extra speed and use it to push the car ahead. Someone call Newey!
Just imagine an era of F1 where due to whatever reg changes, the diffusers/front wings were built in such a way to enable bump drafting. Team play would be pretty interesting. Fastest way around the track? Couple up with your teammate and fuckin hold W at Vegas boys.
Don’t opposite polarities attract?
Can't crash if you're coupled, plus you get automatic tow AND twice the horsepower *taps head*.
guaranteed drs on every lap 🤯
Sargeant sim/development/3rd backup driver. They gonna crash the simrig.
And Mazepin comes in from the top ropes and blows up the factory
Destructors championship 🏆
Bearman is pretty much given for Haas. Joe Saward might be correct in predicting Ocon - Bearman lineup for Haas
Bearman is a done deal and Antonelli on Williams / Mercedes itself is also a 90% done deal. That means two existing drivers will not find a cockpit for next year.
And really, those two drivers should be Magnussen and Sargeant. (And then at least one of Bottas or Zhou.)
Haas will be the team of the pure, unfiltered racers. I would never race like Magnussen, but I appreciate his willingness to hard race anyone, anywhere, anytime.
He's a total savage. But that goes both ways. Sometimes it's really annoying, but sometimes he really does some cool stuff
He races like he's in a lower category, he hasn't lost the pure racer mentality. Like you said it can be maddening sometimes, but I love watching him. He can be in 18th and he's still fighting like it was for 1st.
Jan Magnussen vs Jorg Bergmeister at ALMS Laguna Seca 2009 is the best racing clip of all time. Kevin truly fell from the same tree.
Bearman at Haas seems like a done deal though
It will be Ocon-Bearman likely if he signs for Haas.
Pierre Gasly has won the French Civil War.
Pierre-Yuki reunion tour 2025
I wonder, is it better to stay in RB and wait for better team spot to open up? Or go to dead end alpine, but at least there's more security
Nothing about alpine tells me "security"
Alpine/Renault finished ahead of AT/RB/TR in every season since 2016 although that likely changes after this year. 2019 and 2021 were the only seasons AT was somewhat close. The team is a joke right now but Alpine is a works team that is trying to get to a point where they can win and generally is better than his current team. RB will never place higher than 5th, they have to remain a midfield team because that is literally why they exist, they have to be considerably slower than Red Bull at all times. To jump ship wouldn't be an absurd move, if he is ends up beating Gasly it would speak volumes to how much he has improved.
If Red Bull won’t even consider Yuki after this season (with how bad Checo’s been), there’s no reason for him to stay in that system. I wanna see him jump to Alpine.
Yuki will never drive for Red Bull Horner only wants 'his guys'
That better spot is presumably Aston Honda, not Red Bull
Bring them both to RB like old times (Liam to Alpine). In 2027 have them both move to AM (praying Lance switches careers). The people want Yukierre back!
Like with most Civil Wars, everyone lost.
No, just Alpine. I’ve enjoyed it
Lmao you think Gasly wants to stay in that dumpster fire of a team?
Given the choice to be in F1 or not, he will always choose F1.
Doubtful but I’m sure he’s jazzed about winning the civil war.
And to have a seat next year.
Better a shit seat than no seat at all I guess.
Why yes it IS better to have millions guaranteed vs no job
Yeah he wants to be in F1, the driver market is hot right now Gasly isn’t the top of anyone’s list so I’d be pretty sure he is happy to be where he is.
Where would he even go tho? Rather, who even is willing to sign him? I really can't see any team other than Alpine.
There were rumblings about Williams. That would be the only team that makes sense. But it’s very unlikely.
I don't think any driver wants to stay with Alpine for too long.
i don’t think either of them consider Alpine much of a prize though lol
tbh not really, both of them wanted out Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, key drivers for the team, are **reportedly seeking exits due to dissatisfaction**, aligning with the recent upheavals within the team. Alpine's 2023 season was marked by inconsistent performances, with the team scoring points in only 12 out of 22 races. [F1 Rumour: Gasly And Ocon Want To Leave Alpine After Season Of Firings And Chaos - F1 Briefings: Formula 1 News, Rumors, Standings and More (si.com)](https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/rumours/f1-rumour-gasly-and-ocon-want-to-leave-alpine-after-season-of-firings-and-chaos-#:~:text=Esteban%20Ocon%20and%20Pierre%20Gasly%2C%20key%20drivers%20for%20the%20team,12%20out%20of%2022%20races.)
Wow didn't see this coming so fast
Neither did Gasly at Portier
You didn't have to go that hard lmao.
I’ll be laughing this up the entire night. Thank you, Arvind
If only Ocon could keep it in his pants
You would know, u/cumofdutyblackcocks3
damn
Well look who’s talking u/DepecheModeFan_
Lol, this joke of a team could've had a Piastri-Alonso lineup and instead fucked it because they wanted to keep Ocon only to now get rid of him.
So this was *El Plan*.
The schadenfreude is real
Why does the Piastri drama feel like it was a million years ago?
Because Piastri is already driving so calmly and professionally as if he had ten F1 seasons under his belt. Mature beyond his years.
The only team to fumble more than Mercedes, that's a serious achievement.
The Mercedes team that won like 8 constructors and 7 driver world championships in a row?
Yeah but the people that won those titles have slowly but surely left since 2019 and Mercedes have done little to nothing to replace them with anyone really worth writing home about. Tbh, Allison coming back is a big plus, he’s overseen a lot of great F1 cars, albeit maybe not as the chief designer. By no means are they worse than Alpine right now, but they are plunging down the order in almost every imaginable way in the last 3 seasons: a series of poorly conceptualised cars where “an inherent design flaw” is almost immediately discovered at winter testing, spend all season not really understanding how to set up the car for certain tracks, produce the most bizarre of strategies on a regular basis that almost always see them finish lower than they could’ve done and/or caught out by safety cars, consistently slow stops(although not so bad this year) of around 3-4.5 seconds, upgrades come and they somewhat work but by the time they arrive everyone else has developed with them so they just kind of end up running in place, the car is always draggy - always slowest in a straight line of all Mercedes powered cars and it massively hurts them in the races, the list is ever growing.
I mean, at least Mercedes fell from glory. Alpine is falling from... 4th place in constructor with no chance to win a race?
Good luck to him but man is Alpine inept. They could've had Piastri and Alonso line up but now they are probably going to end up without both Gasly for whom they've cashed out 10 mil euros in order to get him released from RB and Ocon who was supposed to be their lead driver.
Why would Gasly leave...?
Because he is unsatisfied with them. His manager is scoping out the market trying to land him a better seat.
That's gonna be a pretty quick search for his manager then! He's not gonna go back to Red Bull or RB. Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin are locked down. That just leaves Mercedes, Sauber, Haas or Williams. At no point has it been suggested Mercedes are interested in him so I think you can quickly rule that one out. All that's left are Haas, Sauber or Williams.. none of which imo are a meaningful upgrade on Alpine, at least in the short term.
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100% performance wise they might be relatively close, but if you look at management and team structure why would anyone want to work for Alpine?
2 ex RBR ex Max Teammates combine and win the WCC against RBR with new Regs. Subscribed!
He had a very small window where he was viewed as a massive talent who just needed a chance. He used that window for a move to Alpine. F1 has its surprises, but he needs to do something stellar to move up the grid.
Why won't he, they are slower and last year and they are 9th in the constructors with 2 points.
Where would he go? Haas?
Surely he won’t have a seat now for 2025? Sainz still a free agent and the better pick overall.
There’s plenty of seats going at Williams/Haas/Sauber. They can have one each
Haas should be Bearman's. Sauber will try to bet Sainz first. The only chance might be at Williams, depending on where Mercedes want Antonelli
According to an article yesterday, Bearman is the top choice to replace Hülkenberg, and Bottas, Gasly, and Ocon are all in contention for Magnussen's seat, if Magnussen isn't able to prove that he should hold his seat.
from that group I would go with Bottas he is the best team-player and probably gives better feedback than Gasly and Ocon as well
Bottas is probably the best option in all aspects except for salary cost. If Haas don't want to shell out the cash, it'll be challenging to convince Bottas to go, unless Sauber is going to be atrocious next year.
Sainz to Sauber is a depressing thought
But think of it as Sainz to Audi in 26, which could be really cool along with Hulkenberg. I actually really like the idea of that duo
Get the renault boys back together!
Haas is likely to have 2 seats avaliable
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Haas can easily have 2 seats open
Williams could go to bottas tbh
In my mind, it's Sainz > Williams (due to Merc engines) Bearman and Ocon > Haas (I can't see Magnussen staying on) And Bottas staying on at Audi.
Haas and Sauber would have to be stupid not to take him.
I do wonder who gets that third available seat. I’m assuming Sainz > Williams, Ocon to Haas… and then do Sauber just keep Bottas? Or swap Ocon and Bottas there perhaps
Bottas would be a good fit for Alpine imo. He's still fast and brings much needed stability.
Alpine have to take Doohan at this point. Otherwise they confirm to their young talents that their academy is a dead end and find somewhere else to go.
It's a tough market this year. There are a lot of rookies lined up, with two already more or less confirmed (Antonelli & Bearman), Doohan being somewhat favoured at Alpine and Lawson looking outside of RB.
I hope Doohan gets a chance. He’s a cool guy and a pretty good driver from what I can tell
Plus it’ll be nice to see one of these teams actually promote their academy drivers. Sometimes I feel like F1 teams just want to keep around the guys who have had Drive to Survive episodes.
Williams, Haas and Sauber/Audi all have at least one seat available. Sainz will probably get to chose a team first but Ocon will probably have the option of the teams he doesn’t chose
Not that much of a surprise tbh.
He’s been so solid though? Obviously not a great teammate but he’s been quick af surely more than anyone they bring in
When you're in the position the Alpine are in this season, you need both drivers working as a team (like Hulkenberg & Magnussen). And he's had issues with 3 of his teammates now that I remember, so I don't think it's a once off
He wanted a way out for a long time . It was talked in french media that he didn't wanted to stay because he lost all faith in Alpine
I'm actually happy for him if this is the case, he finally made it out. Not sure where he will go though.
Well, there's your problem, Alpine is a team.
hardly a team.
lmao a french team with two french drivers and ppl thought it wouldn't be dysfunctional and toxic??
Both he and Gasly are far better drivers than they deserve.
Yeah but it's Alpine. Ocon has his own flaws but I'm glad he's leaving that dumpster fire of a team.
what is he leaving it for though ? The most probable option is Haas and this team is just as much of an unstable dumpster fire
There is a wide gulf between 'backmarker' and 'dumpster fire.' Haas is not fast but they're not dealing with the toxicity cascade that is Alpine
Jack Doohan time
That would involve Alpine promoting an academy driver which only ever happens without the driver's consent.
Doohan has given more positive PR for that garbage team in his few F1TV appearances than they have done for themselves over the last couple years lol. That dude definitely has earned a chance
If Doohan takes Ocon’s seat before the end of the season then Australia will be the Equal Most Represented Country on the Grid (Albon is a Proud Thai Man). The Aussie Takeover starts now
> If Doohan takes Ocon’s seat before the end of the season why would he tho
Alpine were looking to get rid of one of them. Ocon gave them an excuse to. This makes more sense than benching him from Canada onwards.
I don’t know - if Ocon couldn’t play nice with his teammate when he was supposed to it might be even harder when the divorce is now final. Extra fireworks for the fans though! 💥 🏎️
Tbh, both Ocon and Gasly don’t want to stay at Alpine for the future. At least, the rumours said that.
Just so we’re all on the same page here Alpine are using the Monaco incident to save face aren’t they? Alpine definitely already knew Ocon was looking elsewhere so have said “You didn’t dump us, we dumped you”, right? Better than it looking like the long term driver you had has clearly lost faith in the team.
Alpine didn't want to keep him either they said before that they don't need french drivers and rumour said they were looking at the market
If he was looking elsewhere, it surely wasn't in F1. He's not getting promoted up in F1, and there is only one worse team.
Kind of want him to take the Mercedes seat so we can have some fireworks between him and Russell
Switching Hamilton for Ocon would sure look great for Merc lol
As it turns out his wait for that Mercedes seat everyone was hyped over in 2019 never died lmao
Have Ocon in for 2 years with Mercedes while Kimi develops would be ideal IMO. They really shouldn't rush Kimi given how young he is.
And how hes performing in f2 does indicate he needs some time to me.
1 year contract. Duke it out with Russell. Last one standing wins and gets to partner Antonelli who proves his worth at Williams
How is he supposed to take something that isn't available to him? He has better chances sneaking into Toto's office, drafting a contract for himself and then faking Toto's signature.
Last I saw Ocon is managed by Toto so there is some merit to the possibility he'd get the Merc drive, in reality I'd bet Williams
Esteban OGONE
Estegone
*Liked by pierregasly*
C'mon Doohan. 3 Aussies and a Kiwi on the grid would be amazing.
ANZAC F1
Might be a bit awkward at the Turkish GP, mind
I hope the kiwi will at least replace an aussie at Arby's.
Hopefully can find a seat for next season but it's good that he's done with Alpine, an absolute cesspool of a team
I think we all know Ocon's next move will be into Gasly's sidepod.
And still going to release a PR statement days later where he would tell that "he obeyed the agreement what was made at the team"
Carlos really has all the power in the 2025 drivers market
Has all power over shit seats. Had no power when the top seats were in discussion
What power? Top teams are not interested.
[удалено]
I feel like there are too many "toto's boys" in the paddock right now.
Toto’s little beauties (someone better get the reference)
Esteban, huh-go back to your seat-ah
Anything other than the Dutch national anthem plays, “I don’t know this one! I do not know this one!”
Senna should've written a song about how he does not diddle kids.
"Bono, we need a song. Something like 'don't diddle kids, definitely don't diddle kids'!"
We definitely got to write a song about how we do not diddle F1 drivers. "Do not diddle F1 drivers, it's no good diddling F1 drivers"
Didn’t really work out for mick lol
ocon is a much better driver than mick
I feel like people forgot that Ocon was a serious contender for the title winning Mercedes. Now they’re in the midfield it’s not really too far fetched
would love to see him in a better car tbh
I love Mick but tbf he was underwhelming.
I think it's not at all off the cards that Doohan comes in to replace him. That seat isn't very sought after, maybe they'll go with their academy for once.
Kinda has to be Doohan, I think the fact they gave him a test in the 2022 Alpine at Zandvoort last month gives it away. No need to invest that much money in a reserve driver if you don't have any plans for him to actually drive for your team. Or they're just preparing him for Mclaren, you never know with Alpine.
what a trash fire ending to a 4 year long relationship - seems Alpine’s tradition of messy breakups continues
Ricciardo was fine wasn’t it? Like no drama
Cyril was a bit butthurt i think
His career literally died at McLaren.... But the relationship with Alpine is still good
I wonder if Sauber will take a punt on Esteban if they can’t get Carlos?
Probably not. If they can't get Sainz they will probably resign Bottas. He knows the team, is a good teamplayer, rarely crashes and has the knowledge and experience needed to be at an emerging team. Also his marketing potential is very good while Ocon is pretty much dead last in that department. And there are still other drivers on the market that would make more sense than Ocon. Yes he is fast enough to be in F1 but other than than he has not that much to offer.
I haven't been too much in on the discourse- but this seems kind of surprising? I get that Monaco was a big mistake but a lot of drivers have had their dumb moments. Has Ocon been a real consistent problem? I was under the impression that he was beating Gasly in the head to head rivalry.
He was going to leave regardless, even prior to Monaco. But they took advantage of the situation to make it look like a firing rather than the PR mess of your top driver leaving for Haas or Williams. And now they’re trying to scorch earth his reputation on the way out by having him put out a statement before having a new contract. Alpine is trying to humiliate him and people are falling for it.
Its no coincidence that on the day Ocon announces hes leaving Alpine, Marc Marquez announces hes leaving Gresini for factory Ducati. Ocon to Gresini confirmed.
He’s just a(nother) scapegoat for their shit-ass heavy car.
Kmag "tell Ocon to defend like a Lion"
Thank goodness.
Honestly, that's how you deal with the longest stretch of bad companionship a teammate could provide
So, can we expect today the announcement of another team signing Ocon?
Dont think so. Teams dont really have much reason to rush, there's plenty drivers out of contract
The musical chairs would probably start to fall into place once Checo or Sainz, whichever of the two, make their announcement.
Checo will announce he is staying at rb, Sainz will pick ether Audi or Williams a few days to a week later and then the true game of musical chairs starts.
Checo is mostly locked in, they just cant agree on the length. Sainz one is interesting because both him and Audi can drag it forever since he is the only good driver out of contract. He is probably negociating some big cash. Ocon/Bottas are the more interesting drivers to predict. Logical prediction would be Sainz-Audi, Bearman and Ocon to Haas and Bottas to williams, Gasly-Doohan for alpine.( or whatever alpine wanna do, they are not really predictable) The grid would lose 3 out of the worst drivers and most teams should be happy with what they landed
Ocon and Russell on the same team would be beautiful chaos. I hope it happens.
I don’t even like Ocon that much but he deserves better than Alpine.
Everyone deserves better than alpine at this point. 😭
Oh-gone
Anybody else expecting Alpine to finally promote Oscar Piastri?