r/haasf1team • u/Blubmans Only dutch KMAG fan • 19d ago

Was Ocon really the right choice?

I was never opposed to Ocon joining the team as he had many great races and was ahead of gasly most of this season, but the last few races where the alpine was really strong, apart from brazil (where he drove supurb) he was behind gasly and by a lot. When gasly got in Q3, Ocon was out in Q1.

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u/RagingSofty 19d ago

I had read that all real support for Ocon had ceased. I think his top mechanics got moved over to Gasly’s garage or something. Other pundits have said it is not unheard of for drivers on the out to be kind of shunned.

Consider this: Ocon won the quali H2H 13-10 and he hasn’t seen full support for nearly half the season and has been nowhere the last 3.

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u/Embarrassed_Diet8359 19d ago

Prior to the summerbreak (before the Haas announcement), he was 10-4 but after he only outqualified gasly 2 times (Singapore and Brazil). No driver drops of that badly so suddenly. And the situation became worse starting from Austin.

If you're interested, Chris Medland talked about Esteban's situation in Alpine.

https://racer.com/2024/12/03/why-theres-more-to-the-alpine-driver-switch-than-it-seems/