Alpine had an unusual way of discovering Esteban Ocon's talks with Williams during the 2024 season.
According to former Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski, the French driver's movements were inadvertently tracked via a GPS-enabled loan car provided by the team.
"He was in Enstone before Silverstone, and when he is there, he is given an Alpine road car as a loan," Budkowski told Viaplay Poland.
"These cars are all equipped with a GPS tracker, so everyone at Alpine knew that he had paid a visit to Williams because his car was in the car park of the factory in Grove for five hours."
Budkowski noted that Ocon likely wasn't aware of the tracking system but added, "It wasn't a problem because the team didn't want to renew his contract, so he could talk to all the teams that were interested in him. It was just funny that the team found out that way."
Despite the visit, Ocon ultimately didn't secure a seat with Williams. Instead, the 28-year-old Frenchman will race for Haas in 2025.
The American team, now supported by new technical partner Toyota, is already preparing for the season with a test of a 2023 car at Jerez this week.
Interestingly, Mercedes will also be at Jerez, testing their 2025 rookie Kimi Antonelli. However, Mercedes plans to sidestep the recently tightened Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) rules, which limit the use of ground-effect cars that are at least two years old, by running a 2020 car instead.
When asked if the stricter TPC rules might pose a challenge for Ferrari, team boss Frederic Vasseur quipped: "It will be a problem for Mercedes and Antonelli."
