{"id":27936,"date":"2024-12-06T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=27936"},"modified":"2024-12-06T12:29:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:29:04","slug":"alpine-double-down-on-ocon-swap-were-not-here-to-be-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/06\/alpine-double-down-on-ocon-swap-were-not-here-to-be-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine double down on Ocon swap: &#8220;We&#8217;re not here to be nice&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine&#8217;s shock decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/01\/jack-doohan-could-replace-ocon-in-abu-dhabi\/\" target=\"_self\">replace Esteban Ocon in Abu Dhabi<\/a> has become a major talking point. Despite the criticism Alpine have received for prematurely kicking Ocon out, team principal Oliver Oakes insists &#8220;we have to move on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Alpine criticise Ocon&#8217;s performance in recent events<\/h2>\n<p>In the early stages of the season, Esteban Ocon was comfortably Alpine&#8217;s top performer.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman had a decisive advantage in race and qualifying head-t0-heads against teammate Pierre Gasly, leading the team during a difficult period.<\/p>\n<p>However, Ocon&#8217;s campaign went off track after his incident with Gasly at the Monaco GP.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from a stand-out podium in Brazil, Ocon has generally been unhappy with the handling and overall performance of his A524.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/01\/esteban-ocon-i-hope-alpine-are-treating-me-equally\/\" target=\"_self\">After qualifying in Qatar<\/a>, he refused to rule out there was some disparity in his treatment compared to his teammate.<\/p>\n<p>With Alpine choosing to replace him before the season finale, the relationship between both parties has evidently fallen apart.<\/p>\n<h4>Oliver Oakes: &#8220;We are not just here for Esteban&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lequipe.fr\/Formule-1\/Actualites\/Alpine-n-est-pas-la-pour-etre-gentil-avec-esteban-ocon\/1524839\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">l&#8217;equipe<\/a> in Abu Dhabi, Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes did not pull his punched on the driver situation.<\/p>\n<p>Alpine are <em>&#8220;not here to be nice,&#8221;<\/em> claims the British engineer.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I don&#8217;t agree with what I&#8217;ve read about how we&#8217;ve treated Esteban. But either way&#8230; we&#8217;re here to race.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"mpHpri8cQQpoRp-w0Zw6yw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2188337307\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'mpHpri8cQQpoRp-w0Zw6yw',sig:'K-4IJKM6n_BtuIIAMJfZAHVcrc9ngyMQMxt7OzDKZWw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2188337307',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the end of the day, he&#8217;s going to drive for another team &#8211; and I&#8217;m only concerned about Alpine. We have to move on.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Oakes continued by explaining that Ocon&#8217;s performance in recent events justifies the decision to replace him:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We kept our word and he will be able to test with Haas. We are acting in the interest of the team, we are not just here for Esteban&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It will also be good for Esteban in view of 2025 to be able to build relationships with the people he will be working with next year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And without being mean, his contribution to the team has been limited recently. He scored few points and was often eliminated in Q1.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Another driver leaves Alpine on negative terms<\/h4>\n<p>Even before these statements from the Alpine team principal, the decision to replace Ocon so abruptly was not well received.<\/p>\n<p>These recent quotes only confirm the Enstone team&#8217;s cut-throat attitude towards its drivers &#8211; something which has been evident since the days of Alonso and Piastri in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Although there are reasons for Alpine to be positive about their late season trajectory, their proclivity towards unnecessary controversy is not a beneficial trait.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of the last few seasons, any driver joining the French team should be weary of their long-term position.<\/p>\n<p>Constant changes in leadership and failed five-year plans have made a team full of potential immensely volatile.<\/p>\n<p>Despite appointing a new team principal and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/12\/f1-news-alpine-to-become-mercedes-customer-team-from-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">making the switch to Mercedes power for 2026<\/a>, the same persistent themes seem to be present at Team Enstone.<\/p>\n<p>As the field becomes more competitive, with new teams and manufacturers joining the grid, it remains to be seen whether Alpine are capable of keeping up and holding their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alpine&#8217;s shock decision to replace Esteban Ocon in Abu Dhabi has become a major talking point. Despite the criticism Alpine have received for prematurely kicking Ocon out, team principal Oliver Oakes insists &#8220;we have to move on.&#8221; Alpine criticise Ocon&#8217;s performance in recent events In the early stages of the season, Esteban Ocon was comfortably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":27937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,1567,465,2296],"class_list":["post-27936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-alpine","tag-f1-news","tag-ocon"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27940,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27936\/revisions\/27940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}