French foes-turned-teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will part ways in 2025 and this might reignite old enmity. While Ocon has already announced his departure from Alpine, Gasly renewed his deal with the Enstone outfit on June 27. Now, the F1 season is just rolling out and the former 27-year-old’s fate remains uncertain. However, a total of eight seats out of 20 are up for grabs at the different teams right now. Amongst these, Esteban is reportedly going to Haas as Kevin Magnussen’s replacement.

As a Mercedes junior, Esteban Ocon debuted in Formula 1 in 2016 for Manor Racing. Next, he moved on to Racing Point to drive alongside Sergio Perez until 2018. The Évreux native was ousted from his regular driver’s role in Formula 1 and served as a reserve for Mercedes between 2018 and 2020. Then, he got a dream comeback with Renault where he got his maiden Grand Prix victory at Hungaroring in 2021. The Frenchman stayed with Renault even when the team got restructured to Alpine.

Now, Esteban Ocon will leave his French outfit as his seat might go to either Mick Schumacher or Jack Doohan. And F1 journalist Joe Saward believes his next contract is already in the works. The Briton leaked the news on his blog, saying, “Esteban Ocon decided a while ago that he would depart [Alpine] but he was on the shopping list of various teams. He is going to end up with Bearman at Haas.”

Haas is infamous for switching drivers too often. The American outfit has already ousted Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean, Nikita Mazepin, and Mick Schumacher in the last 4 years. The team’s chief, Guenther Steiner, later re-appointed Kevin Magnussen, and the Danish racer has continued with Haas till now. Next year, Steiner will reportedly change his squad’s line-up once again by hiring Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon, as per Saward’s blog. But what will happen to the Alpine seats in Ocon’s absence?

Pierre Gasly places faith in Alpine once again

Alpine is in a tough situation in the current World Champion fight. Till last year, their main rival was McLaren, and the two teams evidently performed at par with each other. However, the papaya army has improved by leaps and bounds in 2024. This has left Alpine in the fifth spot with a target to take on Mercedes to go up the ladder. To achieve this goal, Alpine needs to build a strong team and they recently took a step towards that by renewing Pierre Gasly’s deal.

After leaving AlphaTauri, Gasly joined Alpine and got to drive beside Esteban Ocon, whom he had a huge beef with earlier. While the Frenchman had first signed up for a contract till the end of this year, he has now renewed the deal for multiple years. Pierre Gasly commented on this move by saying, “I feel very much at home with this great team. I enjoy being a real part of both the Formula 1 project and the wider Alpine Cars vision.”

After a couple of years together under Alpine, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are now going to go into two separate teams. Once again, the racers might be pitted against one another on the race tracks and this can reignite their previous enmity. Amongst Ocon and Gasly, who, do you think, will get the upper hand in their rivalry in the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments below.