Red Bull respond to ‘wild speculation’ after Esteban Ocon’s Alpine exit

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon.

Having taken to social media on Sunday to proclaim an announcement is coming, only for Alpine to reveal Esteban Ocon is leaving the team, Red Bull have joked about “wild speculation” over their “stay tuned” heads-up.

In a silly season unlike any that has come before it, this year Formula 1’s driver market and the F1 2025 confirmations kicked off back in January already.

Red Bull: We understand that without our agreement…

Starting with the simple announcements that Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris would continue long-term with their respective teams, it moved onto Lewis Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari and, hand-in-hand with that, Carlos Sainz’s axing.

Those were followed by Alex Albon continuing with Williams and Nico Hulkenberg’s move to Audi.

It is, however, Red Bull that many F1 fans are waiting to hear from. Will Max Verstappen leave for Mercedes? Is Sergio Perez going to stick around for another season? And if there’s a change in either seat, will it be Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda who climbs in?

What’s next for Esteban Ocon?

What’s next for Esteban Ocon? Four potential F1 seats in order of likelihood

Alpine F1 2025 shortlist: Who will replace Esteban Ocon for next season?

Red Bull teased an announcement on Sunday night, putting out a “stay tuned” message.

The F1 world waited and waited, and then waited some more and then it came: ‘Esteban Ocon and Alpine have “agreed together to part ways” after F1 2024’.

Not the announcement anyone was expecting, but it got a giggle from Red Bull who put out a brief statement in response on Threads:

“We understand that, without our agreement, Alpine F1 have released a statement regarding Esteban Ocon, causing wild speculation over our ‘Stay tuned’ announcement.”

It was a play on Oscar Piastri’s “without my agreement Alpine F1 have put out a press release” tweet from 2022 ahead of the Australian’s switch to McLaren (bottom).

No room at the Red Bull inn for Esteban Ocon

It’s safe to say Red Bull’s “stay tuned” message was not about Ocon, with the Frenchman very unlikely to feature in the Milton Keynes team’s plans and Perez said to be on the verge of re-signing.

That leaves Ocon pondering his future.

“I will announce my plans very soon but, in the meantime, my full focus is on delivering on track for this team and having a successful remainder of the season,” he said in the Alpine statement.

Although he was a Mercedes junior – and is still managed by Toto Wolff – the Brackley team is reportedly leaning towards Andrea Kimi Antonelli, leaving Ocon without options near the front of the grid.

Haas, Audi and Williams are his most likely destinations for F1 2025.

As for Alpine, reserve driver Jack Doohan is a candidate to replace Ocon and is expected to be given outings FP1 outings in the second half of the season.

Read next: The day Oscar Piastri sent Formula 1 into epic Twitter meltdown