Alpine team principal Bruno Famin has a decision to make for the 2025 Formula 1 season when it comes to Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
It’s been a far from ideal start to the season having only scored a single point after seven race weekends.
Sky Sports journalist Craig Slater has been talking about the volatility of the F1 driver’s market and predicted where he thinks both Alpine drivers will end up next year.
Half of the grid has already been decided for next season and with at least one rookie expected to enter the paddock in 2025, it means some current drivers are going to miss out.
It already looks like bad news for Logan Sargeant who is under serious pressure at Williams.
Sauber have aspirations to race further up the grid once Audi take over in 2026 meaning at least one of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will be moving on.
However, Slater believes that despite all the potential opportunities on the grid for Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in 2025, he thinks both Frenchmen will still be at Alpine next year.
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Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon predicted to stay at Alpine for 2025
Alpine are one of the few works teams currently on the Formula 1 grid but are being outclassed by several customer outfits in 2024.
In 2022, the French outfit were regular points scorers and finished 4 in the Constructors’ Championship after Esteban Ocon secured the team’s only victory in their debut campaign the previous year in Hungary.
Fernando Alonso departed at the end of that campaign to join Aston Martin which allowed Alpine to name an all-French line-up with Pierre Gasly.
Both drivers finished on the podium last season but they slipped into the midfield and were regularly fighting each other at the bottom of the top ten.
Unfortunately, there were worrying sounds coming out of the team before pre-season testing had started and those fears came true at the opening race in Bahrain.
Ocon and Gasly occupied the back row in Sakhir and at that moment both drivers may have already been wondering if staying with Alpine for 2025 was the right decision.
Things have improved since then, with Alpine now ahead of Williams and Sauber in the pecking order.
Ocon helped the team finally get off the mark with a 10-place finish in Miami and Gasly narrowly missed out on points in the Sprint Race.
Whether that’s enough to convince them both that they should stay with the team is another matter with both drivers exploring opportunities elsewhere.
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Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly could play a key role in the F1 driver’s market
Talking about the situation at the bottom end of the paddock in the driver’s market, Slater said: “Then there’s the troubled Alpine team.
“Do both drivers really want to stay there? Well things are looking up a little bit, it is a works team after all.
“Esteban Ocon has those Toto Wolff connections I’ve spoken about, so maybe he has wider horizons than Pierre Gasly.
“But, ultimately, I’m going to say that in 2025, that line-up stays the same.”
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It’s previously been suggested that Gasly is more likely to stay at Alpine than Ocon for 2025 and may have a performance-related clause in his contract, although it seems unlikely that it’ll be triggered based on their start to the campaign.
Ocon is very much exploring his options for next season and one journalist believes he’s close to signing a deal with one of Alpine’s rivals.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is keen to place Ocon at Williams, while he’s also an option for Audi should Carlos Sainz turn them down.
Bruno Famin is ‘ready to react’ to both of his drivers potentially leaving, but there’s still a chance that Alpine will have an all-French line-up once again in 2025.
The post ‘Ultimately’: Sky journalist predicts where Alpine stars Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be driving in 2025 appeared first on F1 Oversteer.