Though it was believed that Ocon’s early departure from Alpine to head to his 2025 team, Haas, from the Abu Dhabi weekend had been on mutual terms, a new statement from Ocon on social media indicates otherwise.

He begins by thanking the mechanics and engineers at Enstone and Viry-Chatillon, Alpine’s two F1 bases, saying he is “proud to call many of you my friends”, and touches on the pride he feels of having brought Alpine their best results since returning to the sport. 

But alongside this, Ocon acknowledges the difficulty they have faced this season “for various reasons” and apologises for not being able to say a “proper farewell” to his team.

“As you know, the plan was always to race one last time this weekend and personally say goodbye to you all next week. I was looking forward to both of those things. This is not how I wanted things to end.”

In his posts, Esteban also revealed the helmet design he had made for his final race – inspired by the 2021 Alpine car’s livery and featuring pictures from his podiums and win with the team.

His teammate at Alpine for the last two seasons, Pierre Gasly, also made a statement about Ocon’s departure: “I would like to thank and wish Esteban the best for his future. It’s been a special story for us to be teammates together at Alpine. We’ve had some incredible moments like Sao Paulo, and also some low ones, but that is how racing goes.”

It’s understood that Esteban had asked Alpine’s permission to participate in the post-season test after Abu Dhabi for his new team, Haas, as he would still have been under contract to Alpine. While Alpine may have originally allowed this, it’s reported that hours before the Qatar Grand Prix, their executive advisor Flavio Briatore informed Ocon that he would not be able to test for Haas unless he ended his contract with the team early. 

Though Haas had been expecting Ocon to test for them on the Tuesday following Abu Dhabi, no agreement to this had been forthcoming from Alpine’s side, who may have been looking to use this as leverage to move Ocon on and allow Jack Doohan to take his seat for a full grand prix weekend.

This aligns with rising speculation that Jack Doohan’s first grand prix as an F1 driver in Abu Dhabi is being viewed as a test by Briatore, who has interest in Franco Colapinto for a role at Alpine. This would allow them to assess Doohan against Gasly, which may have already been taking place at private tests and on the simulator.

Alpine have had an unsteady year of sorts with technical, managerial and now driver upturn – a theme they will have to rectify as they look to reset for the new 2026 regulations, with their new PU partnership in Mercedes beginning too.