Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly’s teammate rivalry reached its peak when the two collided at the Monaco GP, courtesy of the former’s questionable overtaking attempt. Ocon never really had the best reputation with his teammates at Alpine – previously Fernando Alonso and now Gasly. As a result, the #31 driver’s exit from the Enstone team was announced at the Canadian GP. However, former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan has defended Ocon.
“Esteban Ocon in his lifetime hasn’t done anything wrong or bad. But suddenly he comes away with a bit of a reputation”, said Jordan on the Formula for Success podcast. The Jordan F1 boss discussed how he cherished Ocon when the Frenchman was driving for Force India.
Esteban Ocon to leave Alpine at the end of the year.
The Frenchman and the team have together agreed to part ways at the conclusion of the 2024 season.#F1 pic.twitter.com/YjIrjd3Qi5
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 3, 2024
However, Jordan pointed out how Ocon shouldn’t have said things about Alpine’s 2024 car publically and internally. He added, “Things Ocon said inside Alpine were pathetic at the beginning of the year. From an aero point of view and from the overweight point of view. Scandalous to bring a racecar with that amount of kilos and stuff. It was shocking.”
Regardless, Jordan believes that it was shocking of Alpine to produce a car that was overweight. As a result, the Enstone outfit fell down the pecking order and is still in the bottom three of the constructors’ standings.
There’s only so much Ocon could’ve done with the car that Alpine provided him. In 2022, when Alpine last had a somewhat competitive car, Ocon managed to beat Alonso in the championship. However, with the Frenchman’s future looking bleak for 2025, Jordan pointed out a major problem with modern-day F1.
Ocon and Sainz’s contract situation reveals a major problem with F1
Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon still do not have a seat for the 2025 season. Both of them have close to a decade of experience in F1. Yet, teams are looking to replace them with youngsters. Mercedes is looking at Antonelli, Haas announced Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson is somewhere in contention for either of Red Bull’s teams.
Jordan explained this problem for F1, “It’s a real problem about drivers from the current situation. We’re talking about Ocon and Sainz. But we’re also talking about new drivers.” However, the Irishman questioned whether a team should sign a talented F2 driver over Ocon and Sainz who have proved their mettle in F1.
Jordan stated, “Not for me, I wouldn’t do it” as David Coulthard supported the notion. The number of quality drivers is increasing because of the good work done in the F2 and F3 feeder series. However, the teams in F1 are stagnant making it increasingly difficult for the new talents to make their way to F1.
Theo Pourchaire, Felipe Drugovich, and Liam Lawson are just some examples of exceptional talent waiting to make their F1 debut. Either F1 allows more teams to join the sport or else the situation is pretty much going to remain as it is.
