Ocon has 'no exit clause' in new Alpine contract

Alpine F1 CEO Laurent Rossi has confirmed that there are no 'exit clause' provisions in Esteban's Ocon's new contract with the team that would allow the Frenchman to leave before the end of 2024.

There had been speculation that Ocon wanted to include the option to bow out early if Mercedes came calling in the event of either Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas leaving the squad at the end of 2021.

Ocon had previously said that "there’s still connections with Mercedes" but insisted that "I’m completely a fully Alpine driver for the next three years, that’s where I stand at the moment."

• Read also: Ocon commits to Alpine F1 Team until 2024!

And speaking with the media in France on Friday, Rossi confirmed that the team has secured Ocon's services for the next three seasons regardless of what happens at Mercedes.

“He is a Mercedes managed driver, that's about it,” Rossi stated. “So he's constantly under their management, but there's no such clause [that would allow] Mercedes [to] put him out of the team.

"He stays with us for the next three years," Rossi stated unequivocally, "It was a no brainer. It's part of a long journey and Esteban fits into that mould quite well."

He added that it was important for the team to have consistency over the next period of technical regulations that come into effect in 2022.

“It’s a three-year regulation period that opens up next year,” he explained. “We have a mid-to-long-term view of things at Renault. We want to be here for a long time, so we wanted to secure that first step.

“The first step is three years," he continued. "We’ve seen enough of Esteban, we know he is good. I don't want to be here again, looking for another driver after two years. Recent past showed that it never really turns the right way: you have a good driver, you want to keep them.

"It's good for us, it's good for him. We have a long, long way to make progress, he buys into the project, and adds credibility to our project.

"It's also a guarantee that we're going to perform on the driver department. Esteban is arguably a top ten driver minimum, so we don't make a big mistake here.

"He's a great fine-tuner," Rossi noted. "He reminds me a lot of Alain [Prost] ... He's very good at extracting the maximum out of the car and it shows, he's constantly proving it.

"He's damned fast too, you give him any car he's fast, he shows it every quali."

Rossi compared Ocon with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc as a potential future world champion.

“I see Esteban having that potential. He needs to fulfil it, but I see him having that potential," he insisted. “When he was younger he raced against them, and consistently – I wouldn't say beat them all the time, but was competitive at the same level

"So for me, yes, he has a lot of potential that we want to unpack and unfold at Alpine."

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