Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have been bitter rivals, owing to their countless battles on the track starting from their karting days. However, not all was bad between them back in the day. Ocon shared a heartwarming memory from his friendship with Gasly during a segment for F1’s official YouTube channel.
‘Never Have I Ever’, a game that F1 drivers had played before, made its return earlier this week, and one of the questions asked this time was whether drivers visited their teammate’s home in the past.
“I have been to Pierre’s house,” said Ocon when his turn came. When asked if the former Red Bull driver cooked for him, he replied, “No, it was his mom cooking.”
Ocon smiled and let out a laugh following this revelation. Clearly, before things took a sour turn, they were good friends who would visit each others’ homes. But motorsports being a cutthroat environment, things turned ugly, as they did between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the past.
Currently, they are teammates at Alpine. However, the partnership is set to end in the coming season, with Ocon leaving.
Ocon and Gasly set to part ways
Ocon joined Team Enstone when they were known as Renault in 2020. He has achieved some success with them, winning a race (Hungary 2021) and also standing on the podium on a handful of occasions, including the Monaco GP last year.
But after Gasly joined in 2023, things began to unravel. His old rivalry with Ocon reignited and there were several nervy on-track moments that Alpine found difficult to deal with.
More chaos on the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix
A close call for Gasly when his team-mate Ocon collided into the right front #F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/tlR51nCI6a
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 27, 2024
In this year’s race in Monaco, Ocon made a move on Gasly which nearly ended both their races and there reports of internal instability within the French team. Just a few days later, the team announced that Ocon would not continue with the team in 2025, whereas Gasly signed a multi-year contract.
Where Ocon will race from next year onwards remains unknown. But Haas remains one of the teams most heavily linked to him.
