Haas have signed Alpine’s Esteban Ocon on a multi-year contract to partner rookie Ollie Bearman in 2025.
The team announced last week that Kevin Magnussen would be leaving at the end of the season, leaving a vacant seat that was widely believed to have been allocated to 27-year-old Ocon.
On Thursday in Belgium, ahead of the final race before the break and at the track where Ocon made his F1 debut in 2016, Haas announced Ocon would become the first Grand Prix winner to race one of their cars since they entered the sport in 2016.
Ocon has 146 career starts under his belt and has driven for Manor, Force India, Renault and Alpine – scoring 425 points in that period including three podiums, one of which was his maiden win in Hungary in 2021.
The Frenchman has previous with Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, as the Japanese boss engineered Ocon in his first F1 test back in 2014 with Lotus (which now operates under the Alpine banner) at Valencia.
“I’m delighted we’ve secured Esteban Ocon’s services for Haas,” said Komatsu. “I’ve obviously been aware of his talents for a long time and our personal history dates back to Esteban’s maiden run in a Formula 1 car – I was his race engineer that day with Lotus.
“It was vital we had a driver with experience in beside Oliver Bearman next year, but Esteban’s only 27 – he’s still young with a lot to prove as well. I think we have a hungry, dynamic driver pairing and I look forward to welcoming Esteban into Haas for 2025.”
Owner Gene Haas added: “It was important to me that we have a driver with a known pedigree in Formula 1, and as a Grand Prix winner, Esteban undoubtedly fits that brief.
Ocon said: “I’ll be joining a very ambitious racing team, whose spirit, work ethic, and undeniable upward trajectory has really impressed me.
“Haas has exciting plans and clear targets for the future, and I’m very much looking forward to working with everyone in Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello, and being part of this great project.”
Sources say that Ocon’s current team Alpine’s decision to part ways with Ocon was not a response to the Monaco clash as his future has been under discussion for a while, however naturally, such an incident did not help.
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