At the end of fifth consecutive season racing for Enstone’s Formula 1 team, Esteban Ocon will depart the team currently known as Alpine at the conclusion of 2024 to join Haas.
On the face of it, the 27-year-old is not enjoying a particularly outstanding season. For one thing, he is behind team mate Pierre Gasly in the championship by a single point after only managing to record four top ten finishes in the first 14 rounds of the season.But as can so often be the case in Formula 1, looking at the results alone rarely tells a complete picture.
Alpine began the season with a car that just wasn’t at the level of performance the team expected or should have been at, given their resources and position in last year’s championship. But while the opening rounds were an exercise in frustration and extreme patience, Ocon was clearly the one who coped better in the situation between him and Gasly.
Ocon began the year out-qualifying Gasly in each of the first five rounds. While it took until the fifth attempt in China for Gasly to escape Q1 for the first time, Ocon had done so three times by that same point. The average margin between them in qualifying over that span sat at 0.21s in Ocon’s favour.
He was superior in the races too. Aside from the Australian Grand Prix, Ocon beat his team mate to the chequered flag in five of the first six rounds in which they both finished – and even his Melbourne afternoon was compromised when a rogue tear-off strip got caught in his brake duct. His work in Jeddah was also worthy of praise, finishing ahead of both RBs, a Williams and both Saubers when the team was still scrambling desperately to find any pace they could. He even secured the team’s first point of the entire season in Miami with a very solid drive on Sunday, again beating Gasly to the team’s first top ten of the championship.
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But despite putting in some very solid work over the early phase of the season, Ocon was guilty of one of the most unnecessary and foolishly selfish acts of the entire year in Monaco. Having been out-qualified by Gasly, Ocon was desperate not to lose out to his team mate at the start and lose preferential treatment for the rest of the race. He threw his car up the inside of Gasly’s into Portier, leading to an inevitable collision that pitched him up into the air and caused irreparable damage to his car and threatened to cost Gasly his race too.
Although Ocon accepted responsibility and was relieved when Gasly was able to take the restart and score a point in tenth, the damage had been done. It was hardly coincidence that, before the next round in Canada, Alpine announced that they would be moving on from Ocon at the end of the season.
Esteban Ocon
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 9 | 19 (x2) |
| GP finish | 9 | 18 |
| Points | 5 | |
After this embarrassing episode, Ocon managed to bounce back at the next round in Montreal. A very strong Sunday saw him make his intermediate tyres last over half the race before switching to slicks. Although he finished behind Gasly, that was mainly down to him surrendering ninth to his team mate under orders in the closing laps.
Following a trio of rounds in which Gasly out-qualified him, Ocon turned the tables on his team mate into the summer break with a run of four consecutive Saturday afternoons where he was the faster Alpine driver – although Silverstone would not truly count due to Gasly having entered that weekend with a ‘back of the grid’ penalty.
The latest round of the championship, Belgium, was possibly Ocon’s best of the season. After missing the opening practice session with a water leak, he managed to reach Q3 for the third time in five rounds. Although he lost places at the start, his race was excellent – passing several rivals over the race, including Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps to take his best finish of the season in ninth following George Russell’s disqualification.
Throughout the season, Ocon has shown considerable grit in the face of the disappointing performance of his car. But aside from having the edge over his team mate for the bulk of the season – if not on the scoreboard – Ocon has also demonstrated the qualities that have led Haas to take a gamble on him over Kevin Magnussen for 2025.
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Formula 1
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Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
12th August 2024, 9:34
I think Albon is going to be a fair bit too high now. The gap between him and Sargeant has actually decreased since they had the same car spec and the gap between them in my view is more or less the same as Bottas and Zhou and yet Bottas was 5 places above Zhou and Albon is going to be over 10 above Sargeant.
Albon has only scored 4 points in a car that has been far better than the sauber, and bottas likely would have around the same without some terrible pit stops and the retirement while in contention for points in China.
I don’t think Albon has been as strong this season, and would rate Ocon some way above him.
notagrumpyfan
12th August 2024, 9:46
But that is not how rankings work!
Who would you rank below Sargeant this year?
Besides Ocon (I would not), who else would you rank ahead of Albon?
But arguably Zhou is ranked too high, which might solve your query.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
12th August 2024, 17:34
Sargeant has in my view been no better than last year, and I still consider him easily the worst on the grid. And the gap between him and Albon has been getting closer. I think that is related to albon not performing as well as he has been in my view.
In my rankings on another forum, I had Albon 14th, which was a fair bit lower than average. I had Ocon 8th so we obviously think different here. I had Tsunoda, Gasly, Bottas, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Ocon above Albon in this order. I wasn’t the only one on my forum either to vote Albon this low either. I think there is not a drastic difference between any of these drivers performance wise this season though so the gaps do look bigger than the performance difference.
I however just think Sargeant being as bad as he is heavily flatters Albon. He’s never had a strong team mate at Williams.
Bottas goes from doing at least a decent job against the best driver in the sport at the time to being against a driver that many said he should be putting more of a gap between. Now that he’s basically destroying Zhou, I don’t think that’s really getting noticed enough. That’s one reason why I rank Bottas higher than Albon.
It just seems a little odd to me that now Bottas is basically destroying Zhou possibly to a larger degree than Albon is to Sargeant justifies such a distance between eachother in the rankings.
notagrumpyfan
12th August 2024, 18:48
I actually think that part of the closing of the gap between of Sargeant and Albon is the former improving, and even more so than the latter getting worse. Sargeant in my lists still sits at the back, but I can no longer drive a bus between him and #19.
It’s always difficult to rate, or even rank, drivers in different cars. I use a 3-step process for that
– 1st I rank the two drivers in each team, with a comment if it was destroyed (Verstappen to Perez) or almost equal (none, closest pairing Leclect and Sainz)
– Then I rank the strongest drivers in each team 1-10 (Ver, Nor, Rus, Lec, Hul, Alo, Alb, Oco, Tsu, Bot)
– Then I peg the weakest driver in each team in a position after the mean driver, starting with the closest teammate. (e.g. Sai to be pegged between Lec and Hul, etc.)
As you can see from the above, we disagree on Bottas; from the best drivers in each team he was the last on my initial list (albeit extremely close to Tsu).
I certainly don’t agree that he ‘destroyed’ Zho; he did beat him, but not as much as a Hul2Mag, Alo2Str, or Alb2Sar, and also they didn’t ‘destroy’ their teammate this half season.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
12th August 2024, 21:41
Well, Fair enough that we don’t agree, but Bottas has had quite a few races this season with Zhou finishing over a minute behind, masked by the fact that Bottas wasn’t that much further up position wise because of the car being the worst. Alonso in the last 8 races has only scored 1 more point than Stroll. He destroyed Stroll in the first 6, but after that, I would argue that overall this season, they have performed more closely to eachother than Bottas and Zhou. Even Magnussen has had had a lot more weekends where he has clearly outperformed Hulkenberg than Zhou has to Bottas.
I ranked Hulkenberg 10th and Magnussen 17th, Alonso 9th and Stroll 16th. I think I probably now could switch alonso and hulkenberg round though. With the Sauber pair, I rated Bottas 11th and Zhou 19th. While it isn’t all exactly to do with the position difference being the biggest margin, I almost would say Bottas has had the biggest gap between any of these drivers team mates. Other than Spain, can you come up with any races that factor in good / bad luck that didn’t have a pretty big / huge difference between Bottas and zhou more than the other driver pairs?
I would say Spain was the only race where Bottas looked really slow compared to Zhou and finished 40 seconds behind. Alonso has had plenty of really weak performances recently and Hulkenberg also has had several.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
12th August 2024, 21:44
All this said, it is really hard to judge the positions. I have 8 – 17 as not having a drastic difference between them. And have 3 more groups above this and one below.
You have given a good description on how you calculate your view, we just obviously think different which is fine!
David
12th August 2024, 10:06
There tends to be a bias towards British drivers in the British media, I’ve got a feeling that within the last couple of years Racefans may even have had Albon in the top 5?
He got destroyed by Verstappen and has been up against very weak opposition for his whole Williams career. I do think he has been a good signing for Williams, but I don’t think he is in the top half of drivers on the grid (if he was out of contract, I don’t think there would be a race for his signature).
Next season against Sainz will be an injection of reality.
Janith
12th August 2024, 11:00
Yes. They always have the 4 British drivers on the top half of the grid. And there would be 5 next year goddammn
SteveP
12th August 2024, 17:24
Not 4, it’s 3.5, or even 3 if you check Albon’s licence details.
It’s so tempting to say “if you’re good, you’re good” but, erm, I think most here are convinced Albon isn’t.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 17:50
I think in order to say how good albon is, he should be in a better car, and even then unless he goes back to a top car, he didn’t prove to be able to perform at the front, and a driver who doesn’t do that can’t be considered a top driver.
The only good thing of sainz going to williams is that he will give us a reality check on where albon really is performance wise.
Janith
12th August 2024, 11:02
I’m perfectly fine with ranking Albon high and giving him the benefit of the doubt because Russell faced no better opposition and Albon has matched or surpassed Russell’s performance there.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 17:52
The difference between russell and albon though is that russell performed immediately when he was given a top car, even in his one-off race at mercedes in 2020, while albon didn’t really do that, and although that is at a different team, ricciardo proved that it’s not impossible to perform well at red bull when there’s a better driver in the other seat, and to an extent perez did too in 2021.
MichaelN
12th August 2024, 15:56
Albon definitely gets the ‘English bonus’. He was nowhere near Verstappen when they were together, and whatever the excuse, hat was his golden opportunity – and he failed to grab it. His two American teammates are among the slowest to be in F1 in the last decade, which is no slight against them, but rather a reflection of how poor Williams has been and the kind of talent they’ve been able to attract.
Albon does well in qualifying, that’s fair. But in the races it’s not great. Especially when you factor in him having a superior car to Sargeant at most of the races so far. His average of 13th is not that much better than Sargeant’s 16th. And there there’s the pretty long list of incidents he’s been in, the most infamous of course being the one that led to Vowles snatching Sargeant’s car and giving it to Albon.
SteveP
12th August 2024, 17:16
Do you mean that if he was 100% “British” he’d be even higher? :)
He’s 50/50 Thai/British and his licence says Thai.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 18:05
It’s clear he didn’t adapt to the red bull car, he was getting results that he was able to get similar results in a toro rosso, but definitely, that can be a career killer, ask frentzen: a great 1999 season and generally always performed well, except the one chance he had with the 1997 williams, was destroyed by villeneuve and didn’t get other top team chances even though he had a good career otherwise (jordan 1999 being very close to a top car).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 18:06
Ops, I was changing something in the comment, I meant he was getting results at red bull that he was able to get also when he was at toro rosso.
rprp
12th August 2024, 14:37
You can’t view it that way. If Sargeant was 5% off from the back of the grid last year, and “only” 2% off this year, that has no bearing on Albon’s performance.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th August 2024, 18:08
That’s the pickle, he was given a dog of a car last year, and slated him off, giving him basically the spare parts car to drive around to uphold their end of a contract I would imagine. They needed an American driver for the Vegas inauguration, (Toto/Liberty/Other Stake Holders), and they didn’t really give him a fair shot while making excuses about how they inventory their parts, which was pure garbage.
Sargent got a bad deal last year, maybe this year they did basically right by him, and as long as he respects himself thats what really matters. As for Williams, they have much bigger cultural and leadership hurdles to overcome before they become profitable, and one of those issues is becoming free of Toto and Mercedes grasp, and actually being able to stand on their own two feet instead of begging for handouts or doing what ever Mercedes want.
At the end of the day, if you cant fend for yourself, and you need the guardianship of another team, its best to make way for an entity that can, BUT, this is not in the interests of those who ‘control’ the current regime, as they need grid filler and yes men more than real competition, which is why Liberty/Toto said no way to a real team usurping a struggling one, they can’t afford real competition, because it messes with their model of garbage tires, and manufacturer controlled teams. As well as whom ever is ‘guiding’ the tech/rules peoples.
David
12th August 2024, 10:07
Struggling to see Ocon above either Tsunoda or Alonso. But that’s the nature of rankings, there is a degree of subjectivity.
Todfod (@todfod)
12th August 2024, 13:22
I wouldn’t really rate Ocon higher than Gasly this season. Both Tsonuda and Alonso were better as well.. even though they’ve been far from their best in the last 6 races or so
Jere (@jerejj)
12th August 2024, 13:31
@todfod I agree with you regarding Gasly, not only because Ocon hasn’t out-performed him as consistently anymore as he did in the early-seasn phase + Gasly suffered with unreliability quite a lot towards the summer break, which reduces overall comparability.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
12th August 2024, 10:22
I think Ocon has been surprisingly good this year, definitely more consistent than Alonso, Bottas and Tsunoda, and also Hulkenberg although with lower peaks than Alonso or Hulkenberg. Last year I ranked him ahead of Gasly but only narrowly and thought Gasly had the momentum at the end of the year so it is surprising that Ocon has regained control of the Alpine battle this year. I would have him above Albon as well but they are very close and definitely the two most consistent drivers in the midfield. I enjoyed some of Ocon’s drives at the start of the year when he was comfortably beating faster cars, and also the defence against Alonso in Miami was excellent.
A great signing for Haas, he is a lot better than Magnussen.
notagrumpyfan
12th August 2024, 10:40
What’s better consistency or ‘peaky’?
I guess it depends on the team:
At a top team it probably pays of to be consistent and rake in the points week after week.
For a lower tiered team, and based on the current points system, it pays off to be peaky and bring in some points on your ‘high peak’ weekends.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
12th August 2024, 11:06
I agree but I am also not totally convinced that those drivers’ peaks were really better than Ocon’s. They probably just looked better because the car was better, and so Ocon being able to keep that level up puts him ahead of drivers who have off-days. Teammate comparisons are hard because Ocon>Gasly>Tsunoda>Ricciardo>Ocon but of those, I think Ricciardo is the one who is nowhere near his previous level and would still back Ocon to beat Tsunoda most of the time. Alonso’s peaks do seem higher than Ocon’s but he has also had some clearly worse races this season. Hulkenberg also seems like he has had higher peaks but that might be an illusion flattered by a strong Haas and underperforming teammate.
I would be interested to know if there are any rankings from past seasons which Will or Keith now disagrees with, having the hindsight of following seasons?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 18:10
Interesting final point, I agree, it would be nice to see an article about something like that.
Axel
12th August 2024, 10:45
With all the discussion about the rankings I do wonder; are they not based on the average of the rating given after each race weekend? Because in that case I do not think there is a lot of discussion about who deserves to outscore who, the ranking is already made.
The only argument that can be made is whether a solid 6 or 7 performer who misses out on great results should be ahead of an inconsistent driver that does score an 8 more often despite having some 5’s in there. Because for a midfield driver those 8’s might be more important than the 6 or 7 performances if they are consistent out- of the points finishes.
Ben
12th August 2024, 13:29
They can’t be because Hamilton was in the bottom 5 drivers for most of the season on the average of the rated driver articles. He did get a couple of 8/10 scores in recent rounds, but I don’t think this was enough to jump him into the top 10.
notagrumpyfan
12th August 2024, 15:34
The ranking is largely in line with the average rankings so far.
We are now getting some interesting differences if it were purely based on the averages (mean score, actual ranking & change in brackets), but the average scores are very similar:
20 (4.5, 20 =) Logan Sargeant
19 (4.6, 19 =) Sergio Perez
18 (5.1, 17 +1) Zhou Guanyu
17 (5.1, 18 -1) Lance Stroll
16 (5.4, 15 +1) Daniel Ricciardo
15 (5.4, 16 -1) Kevin Magnussen
14 (5.5, 14 =) Pierre Gasly
13 (5.8, 13 =) Yuki Tsunoda
12 (5.9, 12 =) Valtteri Bottas
11 (5.9, ??) Lewis Hamilton
10 (6.0, ??) Alexander Albon
9 (6.1, 10 -1) Esteban Ocon
8 (6.1, ??) Carlos Sainz Jnr
7 (6.1, 10 -3) Fernando Alonso
6 (6.2, ??) Nico Hulkenberg
=3 (6.3, ??) George Russell
=3 (6.3, ??) Charles Leclerc
=3 (6.3, ??) Oscar Piastri
2 (6.6, ??) Lando Norris
1 (7.3, ??) Max Verstappen
(ranking is based on non rounded mean averages, and ex aequo listed based on count back)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th August 2024, 18:13
Nice work, I’m surprised hamilton gained so many places in the last 2 races, even though he drove well I didn’t think it’d be enough to make a difference because with 12 races the bulk of the average was already set.
A thing I find unbelievable is that on the race website there are people suggesting verstappen shouldn’t be first, imo he was head and shoulders above everyone else, much like schumacher in the 90s, and the rankings here make it very clear.
Jmlabareda
12th August 2024, 20:14
This is interesting … I was convinced Hamilton would end outside the top 10 in these mid season rankings, based on the race by race rankings, which reflected his lower performance in the first 8 or 9 races.
Will be interesting to see where RF puts him but I am sure it will be a great illustration of recency bias.
Janith
12th August 2024, 10:58
Alonso went from 2nd to 11th in half a season imao
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
12th August 2024, 15:13
Couldn’t agree more!
An Sionnach
12th August 2024, 11:17
Interesting rating and a good read. I think Esteban is often underrated. He has to iron out some things, but they’re fixable. He’s one of the few non-champions on the grid who I think has what it takes to be ruthless when necessary. He just needs to back off when it really isn’t worth it.
Coventry Climax
12th August 2024, 11:18
Every once in a while, there’s a driver that’s intrinsically and potentially fast, but somehow has a faulty wiring upstairs that makes him a bad choice for any team.
I rate Ocon amongst those. Not a team player, to say the least. There’s been others, obviously, but I’ll leave the namesaying aside here.
While it takes a rather ruthless approach for any race driver to be successful in the first place, it’s such a fine line that some just seem to lack the mental eyesight to clearly see it, as well as the mental clarity to decide on which side of it they should stay.
Ocon had a Gollum-style wake up call afer Monaco, that the wrong side of him was taking full control again. To be in search for a seat for the next season tends to bring out more balanced and down to earth racing decisions for such drivers.
That’s why Ocon ‘bounced back’ after Monaco: the need to showcase himself as a realistic option for other teams.
Now that the pressure is off though, with a seat secured for next season, and no longer any need for loyalty towards his current team, expect him to do silly and fully selfish things again.
Whatever the results for drivers like this, their ranking would always be very low for me. The ‘Oh, but he can be very fast at times’, just doesn’t make up for the much more consistent lacking mental factor.
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
12th August 2024, 15:14
Dare I say it, a bit of an Alesi?