Alpine adviser Flavio Briatore has accused Esteban Ocon of being “completely demotivated” in the closing weeks of the F1 2024 season with his “head” already at new employers Haas.

Ocon has joined Haas for the F1 2025 season after a five-year stint with Alpine, which saw him claim his maiden F1 victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Flavio Briatore explains surprise Esteban Ocon split

The Frenchman split with Alpine ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi, with Australian rookie Jack Doohan stepping in to contest the last race of the season before stepping up as Pierre Gasly’s new team-mate for F1 2025.

Alpine claimed that the decision to part company with Ocon, which came just weeks after he and Gasly secured a double-podium finish in Brazil to help the team secure sixth in the Constructors’ standings, was done to allow him to represent Haas in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi.

Ocon endured a turbulent final season with Alpine, with his departure from the team for F1 2025 announced days after his ugly collision with Gasly in Monaco.

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He struggled for pace in his final weeks as an Alpine driver, qualifying 20th and last in his final appearance for the team in Qatar.

Speaking to French publication Le Parisien, Briatore paid tribute to Ocon’s contribution to the team’s sixth-place finish in the final F1 2024 standings.

But he claimed Alpine had to make a change with one race to go, with Ocon “completely demotivated” during the closing rounds as his move to rivals Haas edged closer.

Briatore said: “I have a different view of Esteban Ocon than the general public. We really have to thank him for what he did in Brazil with that podium.

“But after that race, his head was in his new Haas team. And we were playing for 6th place in the constructors’ standings against them.

“I saw him completely demotivated in the last few races, with too big a gap to Pierre.

“At the same time, I wanted to try out what I had in the pipeline as a driver for the future.

“It’s not that I had a problem with Esteban or that I preferred Jack. I don’t look at nationality, whether he’s Turkish, French, Japanese… I just have to find out who the best driver is.”

Briatore went on to cast doubt over Doohan’s long-term future with Alpine, claiming he will not hesitate to make a mid-season change to the team’s driver lineup if the Australian cannot match Gasly in F1 2025.

Asked if Doohan and Gasly will start the new season amid rumours of Alpine interest in Williams F1 2024 supersub Franco Colapinto, Briatore said: “The only thing we can be sure of is death!

“We’ll start the year with Pierre and Jack, I can guarantee that. After that, we’ll see as the season progresses.

“I have to get the team in the right condition to get results and the driver is the one who has to conclude the work of nearly 1,000 people behind him. Everyone works for just two people.

“If there’s a driver who isn’t making progress, who isn’t bringing me results, I change him. You can’t be emotional in F1.”

Alpine emerged as a potential destination for Colapinto after the Argentine’s sensational start to life in F1 saw him score points in two of his first four appearances for Williams in Azerbaijan and the United States.

PlanetF1.com spotted Colapinto and his manager, Maria Catarineu of Bullet Sports Management, in conversation with Briatore in the paddock at the Qatar Grand Prix (bottom).

Alpine are expected to renew their interest in Colapinto ahead of the F1 2026 season, with Briatore recently telling Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “I’m interested in any driver who is fast.

“If there was an opportunity to get Colapinto for 2026, you have to think about it.”

Ocon was briefly linked with a mid-season switch to Williams during the F1 2024 season, with team principal James Vowles confirming the driver had visited the team’s Grove factory for a seat fit around the time of July’s British Grand Prix.

Marcin Budkowski, the former Alpine boss, later revealed that the team found out about Ocon’s trip when the GPS system on his company car revealed that he had stopped in the Williams factory car park for five hours last summer.

He told Viaplay: “He was in Enstone before the Silverstone race and when he’s there, he drives an Alpine that was lent to him as a company car.

“But these cars have trackers, the GPS.

“So it turned out that his Alpine car was parked in Williams’ parking lot for five hours during Esteban’s stay in Great Britain – and this is how everyone at Alpine found out that Esteban spent half a day there.

“I don’t think [he was aware]. It’s just a funny situation that it got out like that.”

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