Esteban Ocon will drive for Haas in 2025 after securing his Formula 1 future with a multi-year contract.
The 27-year-old and Alpine have mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the 2024 season, after the Frenchman spent five seasons with the Enstone team.
Ocon will be Briton Oliver Bearman’s teammate at Haas, the 19-year-old Bearman’s multi-year deal with the team was announced on the eve of the British Grand Prix, and he will be reunited with team principal Ayao Komatsu, who engineered the Frenchman’s first F1 test with Lotus in 2014.
“I am thrilled to start this new chapter in my Formula 1 career and to join the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team from the start of the 2025 season,” Ocon said.
“I’m joining a very ambitious racing team whose spirit, work ethic and undeniable upward progression have really impressed me.
“On a personal note, I am very happy to be working with Ayo again, as he has been part of my debut since I first stepped into a Formula 1 car during my Lotus Junior days more than 10 years ago.
“The MoneyGram Haas F1 Team has exciting plans and clear goals for the future, and I am very much looking forward to working with everyone at Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello and being part of this great project.”
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Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, David Croft and Simon Lazenby explain the reasons behind Ocon’s departure from Alpine
Ocon’s arrival means Haas will field an all-new driver line-up in 2025. Nico Hulkenberg has already signed for Audi-backed Sauber, but Kevin Magnussen is currently without a driver and his F1 future is in complete doubt.
Magnussen has driven for Haas seven times in two seasons.
Haas are enjoying a better 2024 season and are currently seventh in the Constructors’ Championship with 27 points and the American-owned team previously announced they had extended their long-standing Ferrari engine partnership until 2028.
“I am delighted that we have secured the services of Esteban Ocon for the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” said Komatsu. “I have of course been aware of his talent for a long time and we have a personal history dating back to Esteban’s first race in a Formula 1 car.
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British teenager Oliver Bearman has signed a multi-year contract with Haas and will be a permanent player on the 2025 Formula 1 grid
“He demonstrated his talent after strong performances in the junior categories – he won the 2014 European Formula 3 Championship. Esteban has become an established talent in Formula 1 and, of course, a Grand Prix winner.
“It was important that we have an experienced driver alongside Oliver Bearman next year, but Esteban is only 27 – he is still young and has a lot to prove. I think we have a passionate, dynamic driver pairing and I look forward to welcoming Esteban to the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team for 2025.”
Five seats on the 2025 grid – one each at Mercedes, RB, Alpine, Williams and Sauber – will remain vacant, although uncertainty remains over Sergio Perez’s Red Bull future.
Will Okon be a ‘tough team-mate’ for the Beermen?
Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater said on Esteban Ocon’s move to Haas:
“The important aspect from a British perspective is that Ocon will partner British teenager Oliver Bearman, who will enter his first season with Haas next year.
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A look at the collision between Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and his teammate
“Ocon has a reputation as a team-mate who is a bit difficult to get along with. Probably one of the reasons he left Alpine is that he and Pierre Gasly did not get along very well and had several disagreements – including the one at the recent Monaco Grand Prix. But he also had conflicts with Fernando Alonso before that.
“Perhaps it is part of an unfair reputation. It was not easy for Ocon to enter Formula 1; his family comes from very modest means, he had to struggle to reach the pinnacle of motorsport and was forced to spend a season out of the sport when Lance Stroll came to Racing Point to replace him.
“The important thing for Haas is that for the first time they have a winner. Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and, as he says himself, they are an upwardly mobile team.”
The action continues this weekend with the Belgian Grand Prix, the final race before F1’s summer break. You can watch every session from Spa-Francorchamps live on Sky Sports F1.
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