Esteban Ocon ‘very clear’ on future intentions as Haas rumours continue

Esteban Ocon in the F1 paddock

Although it is “very clear” what Esteban Ocon’s intentions are for next season, the soon-to-be-former Alpine driver is still finalising the details.

Ocon and Alpine announced after the Monaco Grand Prix that this year’s championship will be their final campaign together having mutually agreed to end their five-year relationship.

Esteban Ocon: It’s very clear what our intentions are for the future

Almost immediately the Frenchman was linked to Haas with team boss Ayao Komatsu talking up his experience, work ethic and commitment.

But after six weeks and several reports that an announcement is imminent, Formula 1 is still waiting for an official confirmation of his next move.

The wait will go on a little bit longer.

“There is nothing more to say on that topic,” Ocon said at the Hungaroring. “Obviously, we are still working on these things and you guys will be the first to know once it’s done.”

“Obviously, it’s very clear what our intentions are for the future,” he added. “We know where we’re going, you know, we know that my future won’t be in here [Alpine].”

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Esteban Ocon denies uncomfortable ‘divorce’ situation

But while his future is not with Alpine, Ocon insists the relationship is not becoming an uncomfortable divorce.

“No, honestly, no, it’s not like that,” insisted Ocon. “We keep the work going as we were doing before.

“As some other journalists have asked, I haven’t been put out of meetings and things for the future that I must not be aware of, these kinds of things. That hasn’t been the case.

“I’m still very much on board on every technical aspect of things. And that’s how it should be because otherwise we’re not moving forward.”

Determined to help Alpine to the very end, Ocon did reveal there have been times in the past – and with his team-mates Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly too – that the drivers haven’t felt as if the Alpine higher-ups are listening to them.

“I mean there’s a lot of things where we did not evolve the way they should have been,” he said.

“I think on my side, Fernando’s side, Pierre’s side, we said a lot of things on the car developments, and unfortunately, at some stage there’s been a loop missing where we were giving the feedback, we didn’t really have the feedback coming back to us, and the confirmation.

“Sometimes we haven’t been listened to the way we should have been I would say.

“We are carrying some issues that we still had a couple of years ago. We’ve improved a lot of other things but you can’t be waiting years and years to be able to fix some problems. And that’s what has happened, the circle didn’t come back.

“The issues haven’t been fixed as they should have been, which is frustrating. It is frustrating for everyone, because obviously we don’t have a car that performed the way we’re supposed to perform. That’s how we have to live with.”

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