“Alpine gave ‘Sonny Hayes’ a better farewell than their only race winner in F1”: Fans react to Esteban Ocon’s ill-treatment by the French team

In an interesting turn of events, Brad Pitt (dressed as his F1 movie character Sonny Hayes) was seen posing and celebrating with the Alpine F1 team, while the team's only race winner Esteban Ocon did not seem to receive a proper send-off after the Qatar Grand Prix. This caused some fans to call out the French team on social media for allegedly ill-treating its driver.

Ocon had a disappointing start to the 2024 season. The Normandy-born racer managed to finish just five times in the Top 10s. The team's highlight of his season was the rain-soaked race in Brazil where Ocon finished P2 ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly in P3. However, this was not enough to convince the team to retain the Frenchman. As a result, Alpine replaced Ocon with Jack Doohan for the season finale.

Ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on December 8, Alpine shared a post on X with Hollywood star Brad Pitt dressed as Sonny Hayes from the upcoming Lewis Hamilton-produced F1 movie. The entire crew posed with the film star.

Here's a look at the post of Pitt and Alpine team, captioned:

"Not something you see every day"

Since the post went live, fans have been calling out the Alpine team on X for reportedly ill-treating its only race-winning driver Ocon. Here's a look at a few reactions from the micro-blogging site:

"Alpine gave "Sonny Hayes" a better farewell than their only race winner in F1..."

"a character that doesn’t exist irl versus the driver that got them their only win ever"

"Absolutely shameless french pigs.. I mean Flavio is the kinda guy u can expect this from," a fan criticized.

"Don't disrespect "Sonny Hayes" 9 times WC with "ALPAIN" and 90 times race winner," another fan replied sarcastically.

"Look one guy is the Brad Pitt And the other is guy who is hateful by his teammates," a fan wrote.

"Imagine how toxic Ocon was then lmao," another fan wrote.

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"I leave Alpine/Renault with great memories"- Esteban Ocon shared heartfelt message on his exit from Alpine

Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1's only race-winning driver, exited the team at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix. The Frenchman shared a heartfelt message on his exit from Alpine on Instagram.

"I would like to first and foremost thank the mechanics and engineers across all functions at the track, Enstone, and Viry-Chatillon who have raced alongside me these last five seasons. We have shared so much together, and I am proud to call many of you my friends.

"I leave Alpine/Renault with great memories and the pride of having been the driver who brought the team’s best results since its return to the sport, climbing the top two steps of the podium in Bahrain, Hungary, and Brazil. It was also an honour to play a part in finishing P4 in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022," Esteban Ocon added.

Here's a look at Ocon's post:

As for the 2024 season, Esteban Ocon is placed 14th in the drivers' championship.