Alpine’s start to the 2024 Formula 1 season hasn’t gone to plan and worryingly both drivers – Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly – are out of contract before the start of the 2025 campaign.
Team principal Bruno Famin will be hoping they can turn their form around quickly although he might be under pressure to save his job if there’s not a rapid improvement.
A report from The Race has highlighted who is more likely to stick around next year between their two current drivers with half the seats on the grid still unaccounted for.
Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly facing uncertain future in 2025
It’s hard to believe that two years ago Alpine was competing for points every weekend.
In 2022, Esteban Ocon finished 11 points ahead of Fernando Alonso having recorded top-ten finishes on 16 occasions.
However, Alonso jumped ship to join a weaker Aston Martin team the following year and Oscar Piastri turned down the chance to partner Ocon when an offer from McLaren arrived.
That should have been a warning sign, but the signing of Pierre Gasly – despite his difficult relationship with Ocon – was seen as a positive.
READ MORE: Alpine driver Pierre Gasly’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
However, they fell to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship last year although both drivers did finish on the podium.
Now, things have gone from bad to worse and Ocon and Gasly might be looking for ways out of Alpine before the 2025 season.
Famin has suggested already that he’s ‘ready to react’ should he end up losing both drivers this season.
At this stage, it appears as though one driver is more likely to still be with the team than the other going into the final year of the current regulations.
READ MORE: Alpine driver Esteban Ocon’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Alpine considering their options ahead of next season
The driver’s market is starting to take shape but because of Alpine’s current position in the Constructors’ Championship, they’re unlikely to have the first choice of the available drivers.
In fact, of the three teams still on zero points this season, Alpine is arguably the least attractive.
Sauber will become an Audi works team in 2026 while Williams are heading in the right direction under James Vowles.
The report from The Race suggests that it ‘seems more likely’ that if one driver is going to stay at Alpine for 2025, it’s going to be Gasly rather than Ocon.
However, that’s far from a foregone conclusion and one decision made in China last weekend may suggest that they’re trying to convince Ocon to remain with the team.
Alpine only had one set of upgrades in Shanghai, but put them on Ocon’s car and he narrowly missed out on scoring the team’s first point by finishing 11.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Where could Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly end up next season?
Due to the fact that Ocon and Gasly are both Formula 1 race winners, it’s no surprise that they have options on the table to leave Alpine in 2025.
Ocon is an option for Audi next season if they can’t hire preferred target Carlos Sainz.
He’s also still on the books of Mercedes and could be a useful stop-gap replacement for Lewis Hamilton if Andrea Kimi Antonelli isn’t ready.
Pierre Gasly is said to have had negotiations with Williams and would be a very strong upgrade on Logan Sargeant.
He’s also said to be an option for Audi and if Sainz ends up at Red Bull, for example, then it could be a straight shootout between the two Alpine drivers for that seat.
The post ‘Right now’: Journalist shares who is more likely to stay at Alpine in 2025 – Pierre Gasly or Esteban Ocon appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
