Williams team principal James Vowles is looking for a new driver for 2025: Esteban Ocon will not be the one, although the Frenchman was recently evaluated in detail
Williams team boss James Vowles still has a seat to fill for 2025 alongside Alex Albon – but Esteban Ocon will definitely not get it: The Brit confirmed this to Autosport on the sidelines of the Hungarian Grand Prix,
“He was definitely a consideration, of course I’ve known him for many years, still from Mercedes,” says Vowles, who at the time also looked after the former Mercedes junior Ocon together with team boss Toto Wolff and the director of the junior program, Gewn Lagrue.
Vowles therefore knows first-hand: “He is incredibly fast. You won’t beat a Fernando Alonso in a qualifying duel if you’re not great. If you put him in the right environment, he can be very strong.” But at Williams, that environment is not going to happen in the near future: “That’s why he was in the draw, but I don’t think our paths will cross where he is at the moment.”
Vowles explains: “That’s a shame, because there are some areas where I think it would work. But there are others where I don’t think it would in the timeframe we have. But what I can say is this: I am confident that he will have a very successful future in Formula 1. “
Langer Ocon: height a factor
The team boss reveals that the talks between Vowles and Ocon were of a more serious nature with the following fact: “Esteban came in for, not a proper seat fitting, but because I wanted to evaluate him for 2025 and 2026. I had to do that just to make sure that he would fit in the car at all.”
At 1.86 meters tall, Ocon is one of the tallest drivers in the field, although Albon also comes in at this length: “Like Alex, he’s a big guy, but his dimensions are a bit difficult in some areas,” Vowles alludes to Ocon’s extremely long legs.
Although his team and the Frenchman are not getting together anyway, the team boss wants to make it clear that his thoughts were purely about the coming season and beyond: “Everything we’re doing in terms of drivers at the moment – just to be clear – is with a view to 2025 and beyond, nothing else,” says Vowles.
Rumors had recently emerged that the traditional team from Grove could replace the hapless American Logan Sargeant after the summer break, including with Ocon, whose contract with Alpine was not renewed. Vowles has now put a stop to this speculation.
This puts Valtteri Bottas in pole position for a cockpit with his former team in 2025, although Carlos Sainz is also still an option. Ocon, on the other hand, is considered a hot candidate to succeed the Dane at the US racing team after Kevin Magnussen’s departure from Haas was announced in Hungary
