What Could be next in store for Ocon's Future in Formula one?
Joining Haas For a potentially revolutionised 2025 driver line up.
Haas in one of the multiple teams this year who currently have a completely unannounced Driver line-up for the 2025 season.
Nico Hulkenberg has had a strong start to the 2024 campaign for Haas including multiple Q3 appearances additionally completing 3 points finishes which has shown the progression Haas has made this year.
Although Despite this Hulkenberg has switched over to Kick Sauber who despite having a poor start to the 2024 season and looking like a huge risk will become Audi from 2026 which is likely to be a huge project of potential which was likely a huge reason for Hulkenberg making the switch.
Kevin Magnussen Despite not being announced will likely be retained by Haas for the 2024 season. Magnussen has been with Haas since 2017 until the end of 2020 when in 2022 he was resigned on a multiyear deal.
Despite Magnussen not being on the same level of Hulkenberg this year pace wise he has played a massive team role most notably at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when he defended from 5 cars directly behind him to protect his teammate Hulkenberg from being challenged for his points scoring position of P10.
Despite Magnussen raking up 10 penalty points this year from some questionable driver antics Magnussen has still been a major role being in maintaining the current stability at Haas. This results in likely being one free seat at Haas for the 2024 season.
Ocon will be a huge contender for the 2025 Haas seat as he provides a resume containing multiple podiums and a race win. On top of this Ocon has demonstrated consistency across his f1 career and this season regularly out qualifying and out racing his current team mate Pierre Gasly. All of this showing he should definitely be considered for the Haas and other seats that free up next year.
Haas in the past have demonstrated they do value hiring experienced drivers such as Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean.
Opposingly to the normal logic of hiring experience from Haas the 19 year old F2 Prema driver Oliver Bearman seems to be the favoured candidate for a Haas seat in 2025.
This is thanks to his last minute stepping in for Ferrari during the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Carlos Sainz was ruled out due to him needing an operation on his appendix. Bearman only just missed out on Q3 and finished P7 in the race demonstrating not only obvious talent but maturity to sustain the pressure of driving for Ferrari.
With Haas already possessing a proven experienced driver in Magnussen and a car competitive enough for regular points finishes it would make sense for taking on the risk of a young talent such as Oliver Bearman who has already proved he is worthy of a formula one seat.
Despite the competition for the Haas seat posed by individuals such Bearman there is still no doubt Ocon among other candidates such as Valtteri Bottas is still a possibility for the 2025 Haas seat and very much in for the running of the seat.
Partnering Alex Albon at Williams while Logan Sargant is struggling to find form.
With the Williams 2025 f1 driver line up situation Alex Albon who had performed some overachieving results in 2023 with Williams by single handily promoting Williams up to 7th in the constructors World championship from 10th and last in 2022.
Despite Williams not producing a car as competitive this 2024 season as they did last year Albon has still demonstraited performances extracting the most out of the car including a P9 points finish in Monaco.
Albon's performances have been recognised and rewarded by Williams with them offering him a multi year contract until the end of 2026 which Albon signed.
However the same praise can not be given to Albon's team mate Logan Sargant. Despite Logan Sargant only being in his second year of Formula one he has failed to show any real glimpses of promise or improvement in race pace not scoring a single points finish.
Williams team principle James Vowles has said the "current 2024 driver line up will remain the same throughout the whole season". If logan Sargant doesn't demonstrate any notable improvement in pace he will likely be dropped by Williams for the 2025 season.
Ocon Will once again have strong potential strong competition for this seat such as Valtteri Bottas. Bottas is a safe pair of hands who had enjoyed a successful time at Williams additionally gaining 10 race victories will at Mercedes. with his uncertainty about his future at Kick Sauber Bottas could be in the running for a return to Williams.
Ocon despite still being contracted to Alpine is still under Mercedes management. Due to Williams being a Mercedes Powered team there is a huge possibility Toto Wolff could want to place Ocon in the second Williams seat if it frees up.
For Ocon Williams would not be too bad of an option as despite being unlikely to be a front running team Williams would potentially be a useful seat to be in for a potential chance to get the seat he is always been aiming for at Mercedes.
Joining Nico Hulkenberg for the Audi transition.
Kick Sauber announced Nico Hulkenberg will be joining them from Haas on a multi year deal which they will become Known as Audi in 2026.
With Kick Sauber's driver line-up in 2025 it is still undetermined who will be partnering Nico Hulkenberg.
With current driver line up Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both drivers have managed to salvage reasonable results despite the limitations of the 2024 Kick Sauber car, there is no obvious outcome of who gets dropped or even if they both get dropped.
Out of all contenders for the second seat at Kick Sauber Carlos Sainz looks like the most likely choice. Carlos Sainz brings experience of successful seasons at McLaren and more importantly race wins at Ferrari. Furthermore Sainz has demonstrated improved form this 2024 season scoring 4 podiums in the first 7 races including winning the 2024 Australian Grand Prix putting him in the spotlight as a must sign for teams especially for a big future project such as the Audi f1 team.
Despite all Value Carlos Sainz would bring for the Audi project his ideal choice of destination would be the second Mercedes seat to replace Lewis Hamilton who is taking his seat at Ferrari.
However F2 youngster Kimi Antonelli at only 17 years old is looking a favoured prospect for the 2025 Mercedes seat alongside George Russell. Antonelli has recently completed a two day test day at the Red Bull Ring also known as the Austrian Grand Prix Circuit where he concluded a two day test in the Mercedes W12 which was the car almost taking Lewis Hamilton to a record breaking 8th world championship in 2021.
In conclusion the second Audi seat is definitely the hardest seat to predict the outcome of who will be given the opportunity for it. Thanks to the nature of Audi being such a substantial project this will for sure other than the second Mercedes drive be the most in demand opportunity for a seat in the formula one grid in 2025.
With the quality and quantity of drivers who will be put themselves forward for the Audi seat it seems unlikely for Ocon to prevail as first choice for the position However is definitely still worth to consider as a possibility.
Does Ocon deserve an f1 seat for next year?
On pure talent alone there is no doubt from my personal perspective Ocon is a worthy occupier of a Formula one seat for next season in 2025.
As a driver despite Ocon not having the best record against his teammates there is no doubt that the quality of his past teammates are a significant variable for why that is the case. Even though regularly Losing out to his teammates Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez over the course of a season Ocon would usually stay in touch with them not resulting in a complete humiliation from his point of view.
Alternatively Ocon has still demonstrated multiple occasions of performing against his current teammate Pierre Gasly with a close finish between both of them in the 2023 f1 championship despite Ocon losing out to Gasly by 4 points still keeping it close with his teammate.
However in the first 8 races of the current 2024 formula one season Ocon has outraced his teammate Gasly 6 times out of the first 8 races showing a definite improvement of form compared to his teammate despite how much Alpine are struggling with their current car.
As mentioned earlier Ocon still has many other achievements to offer as a valuable individual on the formula one grid including being a race winner and additionally a handful of podiums on top of his 8 years of experience in Formula one.
After all considerations there is no doubt Ocon is worthy of a formula one seat and a very possible contender for the 2025 Haas and Williams seat additionally having a slim outside chance for the 2025 kick Sauber seat team turning into the 2026 Audi team.
Although to ensure this is the case Ocon perhaps needs to eliminate the reputation of demonstrating hostility towards his teammates on track by carrying out more maturity in his driving ensuring he stays clean and not making contact with his teammate again in wheel to wheel racing. This will develop his role as a team player making him more attractive for other teams to sign him up resulting in Ocon increasing his chances of maintaining his place on the Formula one gird in 2025 .
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