Esteban Ocon and his family receiving his 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix-winning Alpine Formula 1 car completes a remarkable element of his career story, with their collective sacrifices to fund his early efforts part of the Frenchman’s “emotional” response.
Ahead of this weekend’s race in Budapest, Ocon took delivery of the A521 Alpine car with which he triumphed here three years ago – in an action-packed race that involved holding off the close attentions of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel for almost the whole contest.
He and his family have also gathered mementoes from throughout his motorsport career – “some old suits, some old trophies as well” – to display around the car, which Ocon said they intend for “other people [to] be able to see it as well” in the future.
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The car has taken pride of place in Ocon’s father’s garage in his hometown of Evreux in Normandy, where the Ocons once sold their former home and garage business to fund his early racing career.
“Amazing, to finally receive it, I waited a long time,” said Ocon, who has a clause in his Alpine contract that meant he was able to keep his race-winning machine.
“It's now a past-generation car, it's like a historic car now, which is quite crazy!
“But the emotions that we went through – my parents and all the people I love were there, and to see it coming in the garage was more than special.
“At the same time we put some old suits, some old trophies as well, and I got to see all the trophies that I got throughout all my career. It was very emotional and we had a little tear with my dad.”
Ocon, who will leave Alpine at the end of 2024 having raced with the team since it was known as Renault back in 2020, revealed that the A521 “has an engine and the gearbox”, which makes it “complete” and therefore “even more special”.
It is rare for F1 teams to allow hybrid-engined cars out of their control due to the complexities of the systems.
“One day, if I want to run it again, I don't know, in 10-15 years – why not?” he added. “That's a very special track-day car, let's call it that.”
Ocon is understood to be on the verge on signing a final contract to race with Haas from 2025, with the American squad announcing on Thursday that Kevin Magnussen will leave at 2024’s conclusion despite there still being one seat open for next year alongside Ollie Bearman.
When asked if there was more room for the display of his career achievements in his father’s garage, Ocon replied: “At the moment it is.
“We're going to be planning to move somewhere else where it will be on display and other people will be able to see it as well. But we plan on having it a little bit at the family garage for all of us to be able to see it and to enjoy it.”
The significance of Ocon’s race-winning achievement being symbolised in the A521 was not lost on his father, who Ocon revealed had “cleaned the garage for three days and made sure you could eat on the floor, which was quite a lot of work”.
“It's a proud moment, for sure,” Ocon concluded. “We are all delighted.”
