Ocon joins Haas from next season. What the F1 grid for 2025 looks like so far

PARIS (AP) — After French driver Esteban Ocon signed a contract Thursday to partner with rookie Ollie Bearman at Haas, five Formula One teams have now completed their lineups for next season. Five seats at four teams remain unfilled.

The Associated Press takes a look at how the grid will appear in 2025.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen will continue to team up with Sergio Perez next season.

Verstappen has a deal running through the end of 2028 and has committed himself to the team for the long term despite speculation he could leave earlier.

Perez has signed a two-year contract extension through 2026 and said he wants to end his F1 career with Red Bull. But there are clauses in his new contract that, if his performance doesn't improve, the deal could be terminated.

All eyes will be on Ferrari at the start of next season when Lewis Hamilton joins the team. The seven-time world champion is joining Ferrari in 2025 after 12 years with Mercedes.

The other seat at Ferrari will be retained by Charles Leclerc, who has been racing for the team since 2019 and has signed a contract extension.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are being kept next season.

Stroll will continue racing through 2026 after the team said his new contract “will see Lance race into the new era of F1 regulations” — which start in 2026.

The extension also means Stroll and Alonso will continue together for a third and fourth season. In April, the two-time F1 champion Alonso signed a contract extension with Aston Martin for at least two more seasons.

Alex Albon ended speculation about his future in May by signing a multi-year contract extension with Williams. The British-born Thai driver had been under contract through 2025 and is in his third consecutive season with Williams.

He has scored four points this year and has been consistently faster than his teammate, American driver Logan Sargeant, whose seat is in jeopardy. Albon last season scored 27 points to Sargeant’s one to help Williams finish seventh in the constructors’ championship, the team’s best result in six years.

Nico Hulkenberg is leaving Haas for Sauber at the end of the year, giving the team a German presence on the grid when it rebrands to Audi in 2026.

Hulkenberg will depart Haas after two years. German automaker Audi reached a deal for a full takeover of Switzerland-based Sauber and is planning to field a full works team from 2026.

At least one of the current drivers — Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu — will leave amid speculation that Carlos Sainz could join the team.

George Russell will remain with Mercedes in 2025 for a fourth season. He was on pole in Canada and at Silverstone and won the Austrian GP in June.

Hamilton's replacement with the Silver Arrows has yet to be announced but there is speculation that F2 driver Kimi Antonelli could take the remaining seat.

Pierre Gasly has signed a multi-year contract extension. The French-owned team said it will announce “in due course" who will replace Ocon, with junior driver Jack Doohan being considered.

Ocon and Gasly have made no secret of the fact they did not have a great relationship. The pair collided approaching the tunnel section at the Monaco GP this year, with Ocon taking responsibility for the incident and receiving a five-place grid penalty for the following race.

Lando Norris signed a multi-year contract extension with McLaren before the 2022 season that runs through 2025, the same length on the deal teammate Oscar Piastri has with the team. Norris won his first Grand Prix this year in Miami.

Piastri won his first Formula One race after teammate Norris handed him back the lead to complete a McLaren one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this month. Piastri was a champion in F3 and F2 before he made the jump to the motorsport’s elite competition last season with McLaren.

Yuki Tsunoda will remain with Red Bull’s junior team next season.

RB has picked up the option on Tsunoda’s contract to keep the Japanese driver through 2025. He is currently teammates with Daniel Ricciardo, who hasn’t confirmed a seat yet for next season.

Ocon will drive for Haas next season as a replacement for Kevin Magnussen. Details of the deal were not announced, with Haas only saying Thursday that the 27-year-old driver committed to a multi-year contract.

Ocon, the only driver to win a race for Alpine since it rebranded from Renault at the end of 2020, has picked up just three points this season and had already announced he was leaving the French-owned team. His Alpine contract is expiring at the end of the season.

Ocon will bring crucial experience to the team after 19-year-old Oliver Bearman was also announced.

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Alpine driver Esteban Ocon of France steers his car during the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix race at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, Hungary, Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Ferrari crew stand in their team garage ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz of Spain arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll of Canada arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

RB driver Daniel Ricciardo of Australia arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

RB driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll of Canada arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain arrives in the paddock ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack in Spa, Belgium, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Belgian Formula One Grand Prix will take place on Sunday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin warned Monday that President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles adds “fuel to the fire” of the war and would escalate international tensions even higher.

Biden’s shift in policy added an uncertain, new factor to the conflict on the eve of the 1,000-day milestone since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.

It also came as a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions struck a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine, killing 11 people and injuring 84 others. Another missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people and injuring 43, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.

Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with its American-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Sunday, after months of ruling out such a move over fears of escalating the conflict and bringing about a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

The Kremlin was swift in its condemnation.

“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps and they have been talking about this, to continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The scope of the new firing guidelines isn’t clear. But the change came after the U.S., South Korea and NATO said North Korean troops are in Russia and apparently are being deployed to help Moscow drive Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk border region.

Biden’s decision almost entirely was triggered by North Korea's entry into the fight, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, and was made just before he left for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.

Russia also is slowly pushing Ukraine’s outnumbered army backward in the eastern Donetsk region. It has also conducted a devastating aerial campaign against civilian areas in Ukraine.

Peskov referred journalists to a statement from President Vladimir Putin in September in which he said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly raise the stakes.

It would change “the very nature of the conflict dramatically,” Putin said at the time. “This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia.”

Peskov claimed that Western countries supplying longer-range weapons also provide targeting services to Kyiv. “This fundamentally changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict,” he said.

Putin warned in June that Moscow could provide longer-range weapons to others to strike Western targets if NATO allowed Ukraine to use its allies' arms to attack Russian territory. After signing a treaty with North Korea, Putin issued an explicit threat to provide weapons to Pyongyang, noting Moscow could mirror Western arguments that it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to use them.

“The Westerners supply weapons to Ukraine and say: ‘We do not control anything here anymore and it does not matter how they are used.’" Putin had said. "Well, we can also say: ‘We supplied something to someone -- and then we do not control anything.’ And let them think about it.”

Putin had also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.

Biden's move will “mean the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military action against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict,” Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue military support to Ukraine. He has also vowed to end the war quickly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a muted response Sunday to the approval that he and his government have been requesting for over a year, adding, "The missiles will speak for themselves.”

Consequences of the new policy are uncertain. ATACMS, which have a range of about 300 kilometers (190 miles), can reach far behind the about 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in Ukraine, but they have relatively short range compared with other types of ballistic and cruise missiles.

The policy change came “too late to have a major strategic effect,” said Patrick Bury, a senior associate professor in security at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

“The ultimate kind of impact it will have is to probably slow down the tempo of the Russian offensives which are now happening,” he said, adding that Ukraine could strike targets in Kursk or logistics hubs or command headquarters.

Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, agreed the U.S. move would not alter the war's course, noting Ukraine "would need large stockpiles of ATACMS, which it doesn’t have and won’t receive because the United States’ own supplies are limited.”

On a political level, the move “is a boost to the Ukrainians and it gives them a window of opportunity to try and show that they are still viable and worth supporting” as Trump prepares to take office, said Matthew Savill, director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

The cue for the policy change was the arrival in Russia of North Korean troops, according to Glib Voloskyi, an analyst at the CBA Initiatives Center, a Kyiv-based think tank.

“This is a signal the Biden administration is sending to North Korea and Russia, indicating that the decision to involve North Korean units has crossed a red line,” he said.

Russian lawmakers and state media bashed the West for what they called an escalatory step, threatening a harsh response.

“Biden, apparently, decided to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe,’” lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, called it "a very big step toward the start of World War III” and an attempt to “reduce the degree of freedom for Trump.”

Russian newspapers offered similar predictions of doom. “The madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.

Some NATO allies welcomed the move.

President Andrzej Duda of Poland, which borders Ukraine, praised the decision as a “very important, maybe even a breakthrough moment“ in the war.

“In the recent days, we have seen the decisive intensification of Russian attacks on Ukraine, above all, those missile attacks where civilian objects are attacked, where people are killed, ordinary Ukrainians,” Duda said.

Easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing,” said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna of Russian neighbor Estonia.

“We have been saying that from the beginning — that no restrictions must be put on the military support,” he told senior European Union diplomats in Brussels. “And we need to understand that situation is more serious (than) it was even maybe like a couple of months ago.”

But Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, known for his pro-Russian views, described Biden’s decision as “an unprecedented escalation” that would prolong the war.

Matthew Lee in Washington, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Danica Kirka in London, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awards servicemen in the frontline city of Pokrovsk, the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, poses for a photo surrounded by soldiers in the frontline city of Kupiansk, the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awards servicemen in the frontline city of Pokrovsk, the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awards servicemen in the frontline city of Kupiansk, the site of heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Moscow-appointed head of Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Yevgeny Balitsky during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, police officers evacuate an injured resident following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a police officer, right, evacuates an elderly resident following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish the fire following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish the fire following a Russian rocket attack that hit a multi-storey apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)