Alpine’s announcement that Esteban Ocon will leave at the end of 2024 has ensured a seat with the Enstone-based team will be vacant.
With Pierre Gasly appearing set to extend his agreement with Alpine, which drivers could slot in alongside the Frenchman next term?
Valtteri Bottas
Bottas expressed earlier this term that he harboured ambitions to pen an extension with Sauber as the Hinwil-based squad builds towards Audi’s impending arrival.
However, the German marque is angling towards Sauber boasting a revised line-up in 2025, with Nico Hulkenberg having been poached from Haas on a long-term deal.
Meanwhile, Sauber Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi has divulged that Carlos Sainz, who will leave Ferrari to facilitate Lewis Hamilton’s arrival, is the preferred candidate to partner Hulkenberg.
But while Audi has tabled a lucrative proposal to entice Sainz, the Spaniard is also known to be engaged in ongoing discussions with Williams over a possible 2025 move.
Irrespective of where he ends up, Bottas and current team-mate Zhou Guanyu have been touted as Sauber’s last resort choices, with Ocon, Gasly or RB’s Yuki Tsunoda considered the main alternatives to Sainz as it stands.
Therefore, Bottas has been exploring the available options to remain on the F1 grid and he has been in talks with Williams. The Finn has insisted he is “99 per cent” certain that he will continue in the sport and stated he has “several options” to ensure that.
The Finn has produced an encouraging beginning to the current campaign, despite Sauber’s perennial struggles meaning that he has had no points to show for his efforts.
Bottas has demonstrated that his speed has not diminished with age as he has out-qualified Zhou in all eight rounds this term.
He also constitutes the most experienced name available on the market with 230 Grand Prix starts and counting to his name, including five season’s worth of experience at a title-winning operation with Mercedes.
Alpine could do with that vast knowledge that Bottas would be able to bring on board as it strives to recover from a tumultuous start to the term with a revised car concept.
The Renault Group has fallen beneath expectations and mapped-out timescales since it ventured back into F1 on a full-time basis in 2016 and that culminated in a slump to the slowest team in 2024 with an oversight and uncompetitive A524 charger.
With Alpine viewing the upcoming regulation change arriving in 2025 as an ideal chance to reverse its recent regression, the team’s senior management would be well-advised to compensate for Ocon’s exit with Bottas, a stable interim name who would also be open to committing to a long-term outlook.
Zhou Guanyu
Bottas, though, could be in direct competition with his Sauber team-mate on both the track and in the F1 driver market.
Like Bottas, Zhou has disclosed that his management is in talks with potential suitors, although his specific movements have been less documented in the paddock.
“We’re monitoring all these different options,” Zhou said in Monaco. “Of course here remains still one of the options, but also I’m looking at what’s the best for my future.
“It’s very important already to start quite early, just because of the driver market as well. I’ll leave this to Graeme [Lowdon].
“I’m doing my job here, but it is clear that we’re already starting talking to several different teams to understand who has the best interests and who has the future or the things that I wanted to have for the next few years. Things are not decided right now, but we’re just waiting to see what is the best on paper.”
The Chinese driver has struggled to extract pace from Sauber’s overhauled C44 car this season and is on a torrid run that has comprised eight straight Q1 eliminations.
However, Zhou has a lucrative background and would bring sponsor revenue that other candidates can’t come close to equalling.
Rumours have bandied around that Renault CEO Luca De Meo is considering stopping Renault’s engine division and is instead looking around to identify an alternative customer supplier for Alpine next season.
Renault has finalised a deal with Geely, an automobile manufacturer based in Hangzhou, China, on a hybrid and combustion powertrain titled ‘HORSE’.
According to Joe Saward, Geely holds a tentative interest in expanding into F1 and its existing ties with Renault could facilitate an alliance that bolsters Zhou’s Alpine hopes.
Zhou is an ambassador with Zeekr, an electric automobile brand that Geely owns.
Furthermore, Zhou also upholds the positive that he would be a familiar face to those longer-serving faces that have remained at Enstone through the recent mass exodus, having been on the team’s books as a prospect between 2019 and 2021, while F1 would be enthused to see a Chinese driver remain amid the event’s return this year.
Jack Doohan
But while there are obvious external names being linked, Alpine’s solution to Ocon’s egress could come via an internal source.
Unlike Felipe Drugovich at Aston Martin, Doohan’s choice to give up full-time racing past his Formula 2 career to take on a reserve driver role could deliver the permanent breakthrough in F1 he desires.
The Australian has been embedded in the team since 2022 and his promotion up the ranks has seen him billed with a rigorous testing programme in previous-spec cars.
Renault/Alpine has funded a Driver Academe Programme since 2011 but never promoted an individual from those ranks into a permanent race position. The closest instance came when it intended to usher Oscar Piastri in as Fernando Alonso’s replacement for 2023, but the Australian had been negotiating a contract with McLaren.
Doohan, who is the son of motorcycle legend Mick, does not possess the same decorated record in the lower formulas as Piastri but was not hopeless during his F2 endeavours.
He ended his two-season stint in the second series with six race wins and successive top-six finishes in the Drivers’ Championship.
Furthermore, Alpine even contemplating him would demonstrate that he has impressed the bosses sufficiently with his approach across his various reserve and test outings to earn a chance with a works F1 operation.
Doohan would not be the most glamorous name to take over Ocon’s place, but it could be a convenient short-term fix as Alpine strives to bolster its competitive standing and become a more attractive destination.
Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin was seen talking with Doohan in Monaco. Could that be a sign that he is under consideration?
Mick Schumacher
Elsewhere, Famin has also not discounted that Schumacher could be granted an unexpected F1 reprieve with Alpine in 2025.
The German participated in two seasons with Haas in 2021 and 2022, but he was dropped due to numerous crashes and the team’s desire to plump for more experience.
Having been unable to secure a place elsewhere on the grid, Schumacher has since served as Mercedes’ reserve driver and dovetails that with a full-time Alpine drive in the World Endurance Championship.
Schumacher, whose race pace has tended to be stronger than his one-lap speed, has excelled during his nascent outings in the WEC, with team-mate Nico Lapierre even branding his pace as the “strongest” amongst the Alpine contingent at Imola.
However, Schumacher does not endeavour to remain in sportscar racing long-term and has his sights set still on a comeback to F1.
“My goal and my dream is to drive in Formula 1. That has always been the case and always will be,” Schumacher told the German media.
“That’s why we have to make sure that the dominoes now fall in my favour and that I hopefully end up with a seat. What I can do for that is simply give my best performance in the WEC and also in Formula 1 and continue to perform well for the team as reserve driver and continue to hold talks.”
Famin labelled Schumacher an “incredible” driver and his previous F1 experience would hand him a minor advantage over Doohan.
The son of seven-time F1 champion Michael, Mick is adamant that shadowing the man who shares the title record with his father in Lewis Hamilton and race winner George Russell has taught him things that would make him more prepared to tackle a second stint should he be given that opportunity.
Yuki Tsunoda
Although it might seem an outside bet, Alpine would be unwise to not at least sound out Tsunoda over a potential switch in 2025.
The Japanese driver has been a standout performer this season with five points finishes in the opening eight races to overshadow his more established and more fancied RB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
But those exploits have not been enough for Tsunoda to be considered to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull, which has been unenamoured with that ever transpiring.
Tsunoda has outlined that his ultimate ambition is to earn that promotion, but he has also mentioned that he would be open to entertaining proposals outside Red Bull and Alpine should be willing to test that claim.
The Honda-backed driver would be a suitable option which Alpine could build around long-term and he also comes with the guarantee that he gets on with Gasly, meaning it would avoid the same intra-team spat that has commanded the headlines since Monaco.
Alpine has stated that it aims to resolve its 2025 pairing in the near future, so it won’t be long until it’s revealed whether Gasly will remain and then who will be his team-mate.
