Ocon prolonged at Alpine until 2024

A tricolor team, a blue-white-red driver, and the French Grand Prix: with such an alignment of the planets, it would have been a shame to miss the opportunity. 

Started for several weeks – Laurent Red the general director ofAlpine had spoken about it in Monaco -, the discussions between Esteban Ocon et Alpine led this week to the announcement of the Normand's extension within the A arrow team for 3 additional seasons. 

The native of Évreux (Eure), who remains under management contract Mercedes, is now linked to Alpine to 2024. 

CARhebdo also learned that Ocon had traded with other teams. But it is with the team that he joined in 2020 after a season on the sidelines as a Mercedes reserve that he will continue his adventure F1, started at Manor in 2016. 

While he suffered from comparison with Daniel Ricciardo last year, Ocon, whose previous deal expired at the end of the year, got off to a solid start to the 2021 campaign alongside the double world champion Fernando Alonso. It thus confirms the dynamic started during the last races of the 2020 financial year, enlivened by a first career podium at the Sakhir Grand Prix. 

Alpine will thus keep the same driver duo in 2022, Alonso having returned to F1 through a multi-year agreement.

« I'm excited to continue with the team beyond this year and it's fantastic to secure my future with Alpine, commented Ocon. 

We have progressed well together since I joined the team and I intend to continue this adventure. Big challenges await us, especially with the new regulations in 2022. I am sure that we can achieve our goals by working hard together.

I often think back to last year's Sakhir Grand Prix podium and it gives me even more motivation to recreate more memorable memories. I can't wait for this next chapter, but for now we'll stay focused on this season. »

• gasly non-transferable 

The extension of Ocon also confirms the non-arrival of Pierre Gasly at Alpine, contrary to what some predicted since the historic victory of the pilot Alpha Tauri at Monza last year. It would be wrong to think that the French manufacturer is not sensitive to the profile of the most identifiable and popular driver in France. 

But the reality is that Gasly is simply not available on the transfer market. The Rouennais' contract with the group Red Bull runs until 2023 and Dr Helmut Marko quickly made it known that he had no intention of letting go of the one who has been working wonders at AlphaTauri since his dismissal from the parent team in the summer of 2019. where an absence of contact between Alpine and Gasly. 

Designated leader of Faenza (Italy), the Milanese also offers a safety mattress to the parent company in Milton Keynes (United Kingdom) in case Max Verstappen wanted to export his talent to other latitudes. 

But doesn't the man with 3 podiums in a year and a half, all with a mid-grid team, find himself a little stuck? Because if AlphaTauri displays higher ambitions than in the days of Toro Rosso, there will always be a glass ceiling for Franz Tost's team that Gasly deserves to break. 

From this point of view, however, it has not been proven that a transfer to Alpine would have represented an immediate progression in the sporting hierarchy for the winner of the 2020 Italian GP. 

Never mind, French motorsport can already look forward to counting on two sure values, and this will continue to be the case in the years to come.