2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #11: Esteban Ocon · RaceFans

Esteban Ocon ended the season with 23 points, almost all of which came from one stunning result in the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished second. Four 10th-place finishes on track (one of which subsequently became ninth) were his only other points scores.

He collected little more than half as many points as his team mate. But as Ocon’s relationship with Alpine fractured, his results appeared to suffer, and he ended up leaving the team a race early.

His performances were often better than the results reflected, especially early in the season when the overweight original A524 was at its least effective. Ocon dragged it to 11th in China, then went one better in Miami to pick up the team’s first point of the year. This was thanks in part to getting his hands on Alpine’s new floor before team mate Pierre Gasly, who tended to lag behind him in the opening races.

The pair have had a fractious relationship at times and it exploded again in Monaco when Ocon, showing he still hasn’t learned to leave margin when racing his team mate, lunged at Gasly on the opening lap at Portier, causing contact. While Gasly continued, Ocon’s race was ruined. Soon afterwards Alpine announced, to little surprise, that Ocon would not return in 2025.

It was striking that, from then on, Ocon appeared to get the rough end of Alpine’s strategy calls. He reluctantly and belatedly complied with their order to let Gasly through in Canada, though it was a borderline call at best. In Austria Ocon ran ahead of his team mate before being ‘undercut’ by him.

There were other occasions when, even taking the A524’s shortcomings into account, Ocon wasn’t up to scratch. He was poor in Zandvoort, and dropped out in Q1 in Mexico while Gasly reached the final round and topped up his points tally.

An excellent drive to an eventual ninth-place finish at Spa looked likely to be the highlight of his season until Brazil. There Ocon demonstrated both his skill and his ruthlessness: he claimed fourth on the grid after compromising both Gasly and Max Verstappen during qualifying, briefly led and delivered Alpine’s best result of the season with second place.

But just two races later, having lost time with a botched pit stop in Las Vegas and been taken out at the start in Qatar, Alpine chose to show Ocon the door a race early. It clearly wasn’t a reflection on the quality of the job he had done for them.

RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.

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