Esteban Ocon was abused and trolled mercilessly online after his Monaco GP incident. His collision-causing overtake attempt on teammate Pierre Gasly in Lap 1 of the race left Alpine boss Bruno Famin irate. He promised “consequences” for Ocon’s reckless actions, and in a seemingly unrelated development for 2025, the 27-year-old announced his exit from the team a few days later. However, there was one man who stood by his side behind the scenes.

Esteban Ocon hired Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff as his manager in 2015. Ever since, his ties with the Silver Arrows have been “strong”, as he described it earlier this year. Coincidentally, after his Alpine exit, a mid-season move to Mercedes’ ‘feeder’ team, Williams, came on his radar. Williams boss James Vowles, who was earlier Mercedes’ motorsport strategy director, came in clutch. Though a seat-fitting issue later on couldn’t land Ocon the 2025 contract, Vowles’ support during the tough post-Monaco GP period cannot be discounted.

Confirming Vowles’ support for him, Ocon told Motorsport, as quoted by Soymotor, “Of course, it’s good to have support from the right people. There’s been a lot of noise, which is never a nice thing. When there’s noise left to right, it’s always that there is something big that has happened. And it took for sure too much proportion, especially on social media, which is what Damon Hill said. “He said, ‘I’m glad I didn’t drive in the social media days’. That’s basically what he said.”

The Frenchman then elaborated on how Hill’s statement compelled him to make a public apology. “Back then, yes, you would have had a conversation with the press and then you come back to the next race. But that’s why I made the social media statement that I made. And it was important to raise my voice at the time that I did. There’s not much more to say, you know, on that side. Things that have happened have passed, and yeah, we move on.”

Despite Ocon’s apology, his tarnished reputation of not being a team player amplified. Though Haas happily signed him on a multi-year deal for 2025 and beyond, this Monaco GP incident temporarily played spoilsport.

Haas Boss Ayao Komatsu’s serious conversation with Esteban Ocon after the Monaco GP incident

Esteban Ocon is a no-nonsense racer when it comes down to it. In his 8-year F1 career, the 27-year-old has with clashed all but one of his teammates. His crashes with Sergio Perez during the Force India days forced the team to ban the duo from racing each other. Though his Renault stint alongside Daniel Ricciardo didn’t produce much tension, the negative spark returned when Ocon joined Alpine to partner Fernando Alonso.

Because Alonso was also a hot-headed character, it was expected that his transfer to Aston Martin would restore peace. But as it turned out, the 2-time champion wasn’t a 100% culprit. Ocon’s clashes continued with Pierre Gasly irrespective of team orders, as evident in Monaco this year.

This particular incident made Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu a bit skeptical of signing such a driver. “Of course, we had to consider it (Monaco GP incident),” he said, as quoted by GPblog. “It’s not like it’s gone unnoticed, it’s a pretty major incident. So I had a conversation with him and still made that decision. I’m happy with it.”

Coincidentally, Komatsu’s 10-year-old connection with Ocon helped seal the deal. The Japanese was Ocon’s race engineer when he first tested an F1 car, the Lotus E20, in 2014. In a way, F1 has come full circle for the Frenchman. With Haas finally making a breakthrough with their technical development this year, his signing comes at an opportunistic time. Maybe having a rookie teammate like Oliver Bearman alongside him will also change his worldview of being a team player.