Ocon is managed by Mercedes and got here by way of their younger driver programme.
When he misplaced his Power India seat, it was Mercedes that took him on as reserve driver in 2019.
At one level, staff principal Toto Wolff was contemplating placing Ocon within the race staff alongside Hamilton. One of many causes he didn’t was he thought their characters would conflict, that the connection can be too flamable. Valtteri Bottas was retained for 2020 in any case.
On the similar time, George Russell, the subsequent Mercedes protege, was excelling for Williams, and Mercedes concluded from the information they’d on each that Russell was their man for the longer term, not Ocon.
That was successfully the tip of Ocon’s profession as a possible candidate for a prime staff however Mercedes helped him again on to the grid with a drive at Renault in 2020, earlier than the staff was rebranded Alpine in 2021.
It was for them that Ocon took his sole victory, on the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. He drove properly however the win owed a considerable quantity to fortune.
The beginning was moist and there was a multi-car pile-up that took out Bottas and each Pink Bulls.
Ocon got here out of that pile-up operating second to Hamilton. The race was red-flagged. By the point it was restarted, the monitor was drying.
On the finish of the formation lap, each single automobile pitted for dry-weather slick tyres bar Hamilton, who took to the grid on his personal.
He needed to cease on the subsequent lap, falling to the again. That put Ocon into the lead from Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin, a automobile of comparable efficiency on a monitor the place overtaking is troublesome. Ocon and Alpine managed the race properly to remain in entrance of the four-time champion all through.
Hamilton spent the remainder of the race combating again and his tempo was so superior it appeared he may win.
Till he caught Alonso, that’s. The Spaniard, who had been delayed by relatively than benefitting from the first-lap crash, was operating fourth, shut behind Ocon, Vettel and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.
Alonso knew what was at stake, that if Hamilton handed him shortly, the Briton would nearly definitely win the race. And he knew what a win would imply for Alpine.
The staff’s final victory had been in 2013 however that was after they had been often called Lotus and had been below totally different homeowners. Renault’s most up-to-date win had been secured by Alonso – on the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.
Alonso received his two world titles for Renault. He had been introduced again to F1 after a two-year break by Renault. And so he fought as exhausting as he knew to maintain Hamilton at bay for so long as potential.
The Mercedes was a lot sooner that at instances it appeared as if Hamilton may drive by way of or over Alonso. As an alternative, utilizing all his talent and guile, he held Hamilton again for 10 laps.
When Hamilton lastly handed Alonso, there have been solely 5 laps to go. Inside two, he was previous Sainz however he didn’t have time to make any additional progress earlier than the chequered flag.
Ocon and Alonso celebrated along with the staff after the win.
But little greater than a yr later, relations had deteriorated to the purpose that, after a conflict between the pair on the Brazilian Grand Prix on the finish of 2022, shortly earlier than Alonso was leaving the staff to maneuver to Aston Martin, the two-time champion sarcastically referred to Ocon as “our good friend” over the radio.
Out of the automobile, requested whether or not he would communicate to Ocon in regards to the incident, he stated: “I needn’t. Yet another race. Then it is over, lastly.”
For Ocon, it is now over at Haas, too. Discovering a method again on to the grid will not be simple.
