Esteban Ocon Is Haas-Bound, But Can He Keep A Cool Head With A Rookie Teammate?

It seems that a lot of the time when it comes to the Formula 1 driver market, when there's smoke, there's fire. If there are reports that a driver is in discussions with a team, there tends to be some kernel of truth to it.

So, it wasn't all that surprising to wake up to the news ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix that when Esteban Ocon wraps up his tenure at Alpine he's headed to Haas on a multi-year deal for the 2025 season.

Ocon will become the first grand prix-winner to drive for Haas and will be paired with rookie Ollie Bearman, who impressed earlier this year when he deputized for Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia.

As I said, there were a lot of rumblings that Ocon would make this move as soon as it was announced that Haas was moving on from Kevin Magnussen, but it's still an interesting choice for the team.

Ocon was one of the best available drivers next to Carlos Sainz, and I'd argue Valtteri Bottas. He's won a race before, and he's got a lot of experience to compliment Bearman's lack thereof.

Over the last few years, Haas has tended to either field a more veteran lineup, like their current lineup of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg or Magnussen and Romain Grosjean before that.

They also experimented with two rookies — Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin — in 2021 (I know they were writing that year off to focus on the 2022 car, but that was not a good lineup by any metric).

Sure, Schumacher was quickly paired with Magnussen in 2022 for a young driver/veteran combo, but that was out of necessity when they dropped Mazepin.

All of those lineups came under the watchful eye of Guenther Steiner, while this new Ocon-Bearman lineup was put together by new team boss Ayao Komatsu.

While it's a solid lineup on paper, there's one big issue with Ocon's reputation that he'll hopefully fix at Haas.

Esteban Ocon is a solid driver and a grand prix-winner, but will his habit of getting into it with teammates follow him to Haas? (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Can Ocon Get Along With His Teammate?

Haas is currently 18 points ahead of Alpine in the standings this season and has been one of the more surprising teams this season. So, while getting that ax at Alpine might have seemed like a negative, it led to Ocon getting into what looks like a better car, at least in the short term.

But, being a part of the team is going to be key at Haas, and while Ocon is regarded as a very nice guy off the track, he has a habit of getting into dust-ups with his teammates.

When he was at Force India (which became Racing Point and is now Aston Martin) and got into it with his then-teammate Sergio Perez.

After one season alongside Daniel Ricciardo at Renault that seemed to go fine, the team flipped to its Alpine guise, and Ocon's relationship with his new teammate Fernando Alonso soured after one season.

Now, Ocon is partnered alongside Pierre Gasly — a driver with whom he was known to have some beef — and there were several incidents between the two, most notably at this year's Monaco Grand Prix which was so bad that Alpine's team boss handed Ocon a very public tongue-lashing in the media and even led to talk that the team could bench him at the following race in Canada.

So, his reputation precedes him, but going to Haas, a team that seems to be on the rise, where he will be the de-facto lead driver given Bearman's rookie status could be a nice fit.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in 2025.