Esteban Ocon has signed for his toughest test in F1 in 2025 with little upside

Esteban Ocon has announced that he will be driving for Haas in 2025. The French driver is leaving Alpine at the end of the season to join Haas, in a move that's hard to parse.

How does one judge a move from Alpine, a works team, to Haas, a team that finished last in the championship in 2023. When you look at it from this lens, Haas don't appear to be a team with a huge upside.

There's the other perspective as well, though, where Haas has shown tangible progress this season and have been a strong midfield contender. Alpine, meanwhile, is a squad that seems to be going nowhere at the moment. They will soon be just a Mercedes customer, and by the looks of it, will face an upheaval in France for the manner in which the Renault power unit team has been treated.

Esteban Ocon has signed a multi-year contract that would ideally be worth two seasons in 2025 and 2026 (not official yet), as the French driver, just like everybody else goes into the new regulations blindsided.

There is, however, one major test that Esteban Ocon has signed for, a test that has limited upside but a major downside. It's the test of being Ollie Bearman's first F1 teammate.

---

Ollie Bearman: A future Ferrari driver?

The F1 world truly woke up to Ollie Bearman's talent when he subbed in for Carlos Sainz at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP early this season. The teenager has been making waves in F2 since last season as a young prodigious talent who has a real spark about him.

In his rookie F2 season, the young driver impressed by putting together multiple race weekends where he was just dominating at a different level. Notably, he secured pole position in F2 at Baku last season with a bent steering.

Being a Ferrari junior, he has already impressed Haas as well with his level of performance in the free practice sessions he has had a chance to take part in. There's no doubt that both Bearman and Ferrari look at this as a stepping stone before he joins the front of the grid.

---

What if Esteban Ocon beats Ollie Bearman?

That's where Esteban Ocon comes in because for the most part of his F1 career, he has been the younger one in his team's lineup. Be it with Sergio Perez at Force India, Daniel Ricciardo at Renault, Fernando Alonso at Alpine, and to an extent with Pierre Gasly right now, Ocon hasn't been the elder statesman.

At Haas, Esteban Ocon will be the more experienced and older driver. His role will be not only to score the most points but to push the team forward as well. In short, he has to beat Ollie Bearman, who will be a rookie alongside him.

If he beats Ollie, it will be something he's supposed to do. That's not going to help improve his stock much, and more or less, he would be doing what he's expected to do in that car.

---

What if Ocon loses?

That's where things could take a turn for the worse. Considering how brilliant a talent Ollie Bearman is, if he beats Esteban Ocon, it would skyrocket the youngster's stock and even make him a desirable option for multiple teams.

For Esteban Ocon, though, that would be the end of his aspirations of driving a front-running team or even being a contender. He won't have the opportunity to do that because if he cannot get the better of a young rookie, it would be very difficult to get a seat at a top team.

---

Ocon's Hass move is a no-win situation

For Esteban Ocon, his F1 stint at Haas is basically a no-win situation. He will be part of a midfield team whose sealing is more or less P5-P6 in the championship.

He will be teamed up with a prodigious talent who has been rated very highly by a lot of pundits. Unless he beats him convincingly, Ocon risks damaging his stock and a future at a big team.

In the short term, Haas are the best team Esteban Ocon could have opted for, but unfortunately, even there, the upside doesn't seem too appealing for the French driver.