Esteban Ocon under Red Bull radar for 2021 with Renault exit looks confirmed

Esteban Ocon in contention to grab Red Bull seat in 2021 with Pierre Gasly nearing a move to Renault amidst soured relations.

With the 2021 season nearing, F1 is set to witness another big wave of shuffling in the paddock, as Pierre Gasly is nearing a move to Renault for 2021 to pair up with Fernando Alonso.

Amidst this speculation, Alan Prost has confirmed as per VSport that Esteban Ocon, who is set to be replaced by Gasly would be taking a Red Bull seat, with the French racer now under the radar of Red Bull.

Alain Prost confirms that he was on the phone with Esteban Ocon & his manager upon hearing rumours of Pierre Gasly being linked to Renault. He said that he doesn’t know where the rumours are coming from & instead adds that he heard OCO could be on his way to Red Bull! #F1

— Kunal Shah (@kunalashah) October 24, 2020

Though, Prost has also confirmed that Ocon’s management is unaware of the sources of Gasly’s rumours but would be prepared for this situation.

Currently, Red Bull’s management is not convinced by Alex Albon’s performativity level. So, most likely, he will be replaced by the end of the season.

Helmut Marko just told @Sky_PeterH that he expects Alex Albon to reduce the gap to Verstappen further. Marko was not too happy with yesterdays performance. “He gets confused too easiliy if the car is not behaving the way he likes it.”#F1 #PortugeseGP

— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) October 24, 2020

Therefore, Red Bull is viewing a fitting replacement for the Thai born driver. Meanwhile, Albon is likely to be relegated to Alpha Tauri and might be paired with Yuki Tsounda.

Which means Daniil Kvyat might face the axe from the Austrian team in an attempt to accommodate Tsounda and Albon keeping up with the experience to keep the competitiveness of the team.

Is Esteban Ocon the right move?

In all honesty, he would face the same what Gasly faced, and Albon is currently facing, Red Bull is not willing to give the equal resources to their second driver as compared to being given to Max Verstappen.

Meanwhile, if compared head to head, Albon has been a better driver overall in the span of last two season, with him even earning a podium too.

So, it would be a move which will probably do nothing good to Red Bull and would rather form an unending loop. Instead, they should have patience and work on Albon’s abilities.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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