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 | | Alpine forced Ocon to terminate his contract early and withdraw from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Motorsport)13.12.2024 |
Alpin gave Ocon an ultimatum to terminate his contract early. It recently became known that Esteban Ocon, who is leaving Alpin at the end of this season and will continue his career at Haas next year, will not compete for the French team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Ocon will be replaced by Jack Douin, who is expected to be Alpin`s main driver and partner to Pierre Gasly next year.
Initially it was assumed that the parties simply reached an agreement on mutually beneficial terms. However, according to Motorsport, the situation developed differently.
According to the publication`s team sources, Alpin executive advisor Flavio Briatore summoned Esteban Ocon to his office a few hours before the start of the Qatar Grand Prix. Where he said that if Ocon does not agree to terminate his contract with Alpin early, he will not be allowed to participate in the tests for Haas, which will be held in Abu Dhabi the week after the Grand Prix.
Previously, Haas manager Ayao Komatsu reported that an agreement on Okon’s participation in the tests had been reached quite a long time ago, but Alpin had not given their official consent until now. As a result, Ocon agreed to withdraw from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in order to have the opportunity to start working with the new team earlier.
It is also believed that the decision to put Douen behind the wheel of Alpin at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is due to the desire of Briatore and team principal Oliver Oakes to see the Australian in combat conditions in advance.
The reason lies in Briatore`s interest in the figure of Franco Colapinto. According to a number of sources, there is an opinion in the Alpin management that the team could hasten in choosing Duane and is seriously considering the possibility of canceling the previously announced deal in favor of the option of buying out Colapinto’s contract from Williams. The Alpins` chances of landing Colapinto have increased markedly after Red Bull apparently decided not to continue the pursuit of signing the Argentinean and will instead transfer Liam Lawson to Red Bull, and in his place in RB - the F2 driver and their youth programIzak Adjar.
Esteban Ocon will leave Alpin ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Autosport)
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