Jan.14 (GMM) Alpine knew Esteban Ocon was on the move to a rival team as long ago as July of 2024.
The Enstone based team actually announced a month earlier – in June – that the French driver’s contract would not be extended.
But Alpine’s former executive director Marcin Budkowski amusingly revealed that the team tracked Ocon’s whereabouts to the Williams factory in Oxfordshire in the days ahead of the 2024 British GP.
“He was in Enstone before Silverstone and when he is there he is given an Alpine road car as a loan from the team,” Budkowski told Viaplay Poland.
“These cars are all equipped with a GPS tracker, so everyone at Alpine knew that he had paid a visit to Williams because his car was in the carpark of the factory in Grove for five hours.
“I don’t think he was aware of it,” Budkowski added, “but it wasn’t a problem because the team didn’t want to renew his contract, so he could talk to all the teams that were interested in him. It was just funny that the team found out that way.”
Ultimately, Ocon and Williams did not agree terms, and the 28-year-old will instead race for Haas in 2025.
Ocon and the small American team are getting their season into a higher gear this week, where thanks to the support of new technical partner Toyota, Haas will test a 2023 car at Jerez.
Also at Jerez will be Mercedes, running Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 successor, Kimi Antonelli.
F1’s ‘Testing of Previous Cars’ (TPC) rules have been tightened for 2025, limiting the number of days teams are able to run cars of the current ‘ground effect’ era that are at least two years old.
When asked if the tightened rules will be a problem for Ferrari, team boss Frederic Vasseur smiled: “It will be a problem for Mercedes and Antonelli.”
So, to maximise Antonelli’s running throughout his rookie season, Mercedes has decided to take a 2020 car to Jerez – clearly outside the limitations of the new TPC rules.