The Formula 1 silly season is threatening to kick into gear soon with moves and contract news slowly being announced throughout the first eight races this year.
Alex Albon’s extended deal with Williams is the last confirmed piece of news to come out of one of the 10 F1 teams, meaning half the seats on the grid are already filled for 2025.
Speaking on the Unlapped Podcast, journalist Nate Saunders believes another decision has been taken that will see another change in the paddock next year.
Every race is an opportunity for drivers who are currently out of contract to prove that they deserve a new contract – either at their current team or elsewhere on the grid.
Not only that, but several talented rookies are hoping that they’ll finally get their chance to shine in F1 next year.
One driver who now looks set to lose his seat in 2025 is Alpine star Esteban Ocon.
The £90,000-a-week star has looked quick this season in a struggling car and scored the team’s first point in Miami.
However, the relationship between him and the rest of the team has started to sour and he looks set to join Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg on the list of drivers looking to switch teams next year.
READ MORE: Alpine driver Esteban Ocon’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Esteban Ocon set to lose his seat at Alpine in 2025
It was always going to be a huge risk for Alpine to pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly together when the latter joined from AlphaTauri at the beginning of 2023.
He wasn’t their first choice for the role, with Oscar Piastri lined up to replace Fernando Alonso after his shock departure before he was poached by McLaren.
The pair had a tense relationship already, to say the least, and their huge crash in Australia in 2023 didn’t help matters, costing both drivers valuable points.
Alpine parted ways with many of their senior management midway through last year and things have only got worse ever since.
Ocon has been exploring his options in the paddock for 2025 recently suggesting he may have known for some time that he’s going to lose his seat at Alpine.
It would make perfect sense for the French manufacturer to split up their current pairing and Ocon seems to be making their decision on who to let go very straightforward.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Esteban Ocon coming to the end of his time at Alpine
Talking about the 27-year-old’s future, Saunders said: “I think in the heat of the moment if you’d asked Bruno Famin a minute after that interview, ‘Are you going to get rid of him next week?’ I think he might have said yes.
“But it seems like it’s eased off a little bit. I think if you were to ask me if I think Esteban Ocon will still be at Alpine next season? I increasingly don’t think he will.
“And I don’t think it’s just because of this but I think it was already leaning that way and now you look at it and they’re like, this guy’s just causing too many headaches and also to do that when you’re running 10 and 11, points on the board.
“It was a race where a lot of people knew that if they held on, they’d keep that position.
“Just completely mind-blowing decision to do what he did and I think he’ll be gone next season but I don’t think in Canada they’ll make that call.”
Which Formula 1 team could sign Esteban Ocon for 2025?
Despite suggestions that Ocon’s seat is under threat at the Canadian Grand Prix after his crash with Gasly in Monaco, that appears to be wide of the mark.
However, the one-time race winner is looking at his options for next year and several teams are on his radar.
Martin Brundle has suggested that he’ll never be on the radar of any top teams due to his tendency to clash with his teammates.
Ocon is one of the options being considered by Audi for next year if they can’t sign Carlos Sainz.
Haas are also eyeing Ocon to replace Nico Hulkenberg but it appears as though when the Frenchman moves on he won’t be taking a big leap up the grid.
The post ‘He’ll be gone’: £90k-a-week driver causing ‘headaches’ will lose his current F1 seat in 2025 – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.