Formula 1: Esteban Ocon to drive for Haas in 2025

SPA, BELGIUM - JULY 25: Esteban Ocon of France and Alpine F1 walk around the paddock during the previews of the F1 Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on July 25, 2024 in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Esteban Ocon joins Haas for the 2025 Formula 1 season. (Photo by Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Haas F1 driver lineup set for 2025.

The team announced on Thursday that Esteban Ocon will drive alongside Ollie Bearman next season. Ocon’s arrival is hardly a surprise. He has been mooted for the other Haas seat in recent weeks after it was announced earlier this season that he would not be returning to Alpine.

Ocon is the first grand prix winner to drive for Haas since the team entered F1 in 2016. Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix after starting eighth when a first-lap crash eliminated four drivers from the field ahead of him.

The former Mercedes reserve driver has contested 146 F1 races before the Belgian Grand Prix, with three podiums and an average finish of 11th. Ocon finished second in Bahrain in 2020 and third a season ago in Monaco.

The 2024 season, however, has been a disaster for Alpine. Ocon has scored just three points and sits 18th in the standings. He is ahead of only three full-time drivers.

His teammate Pierre Gasly is 15th and has six points. Alpine occupies eighth place in the constructors’ standings and is 18 points behind Haas.

Nico Hulkenberg scored 22 of Haas’ 27 points this season before joining Sauber in 2025. Sauber has not scored a single point this season but is working towards the 2026 season when it will become an Audi works team. The team’s other driver, Kevin Magnussen, has scored two more points than Ocon this year.

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