Current Esteban Ocon

At the start of the 2016 season the two drivers I considered deserved to be on the grid most that weren't there were Stoffel Vandorne and Esteban Ocon. I'm very happy to say that both have now got their shot. At just twenty years of age Ocon certainly has the pedigree and the time to become one of the best in the sport and hopefully now has a shot in the Manor to show that potential. Ocon was the European F3 champion in 2014 and the GP3 champion in 2015 beating fairly strong opposition along the way to do so, most noticeably Max Verstappen. In both of his championship years he was face with opposition that was in better form than him and who had their machinery hooked up better than him, How did he do it? Well consistency was the name of the game.

In GP3 in 2015 Luca Ghiotto was in the form of his life and had his Trident car hooked up perfect but when the points were counted up it was Ocon that was champion. Despite being faced with such strong opposition Ocon kept himself in the running with an incredible ten 2nd places in a row (Both feature race and sprint race). He actually only scored one win all season (he did have two others that he was DQ'd for). Consistency like that is not be sniffed at. It was a similar story in F3 in 2015. By the time the now legendary Max Verstappen had got his car set up and his eye in Ocon had scored so many points he was uncatchable.

So does consistency mean caution? Well I'm sure Esteban would be the first to agree he is more Prost than Senna and most likely does not have the flare of Verstappen and Hamilton, however this does not mean he isn't feisty. His first corner collision with Verstappen in F3 certainly showed he isn't afraid to fight for his position and he was exceptionally good at fighting back through the field in the GP3 sprint races.

Ocon became part of the Mercedes young driver program last year after stupidly being dropped by Enstone (then Lotus) as other less worthy young drivers brought the team more money. This has meant he has been well supported in his bid to be in F1 and why he has landed his Manor drive. He is now being put up directly against Mercedes other young driver Pascal Wehrlein. From whats been said in the media there is not a lot of love lost between the two and I'm really looking forward to see how it pans out between them. Overall, in my view, I think Ocon is the better driver but we've seen many a good reputation not come to the top when it comes to F1. Wehrlein certainly has the head start with having done over half a season of races already and I fully expect him to be quicker in quali than Ocon for most of the rest of the season. I think it will probably make Wehrlein raise his game which can only be a good thing. My money in the long run though is on Ocon.

Anyways I'm sure we're all going to enjoy watching how Ocon gets on and I think we can all rejoice that a driver who actually has earned a place on the grid has been brought in rather than someone with a big ban balance.
 
Ocon is probably a lot easier since he seems to be a guy who is willing to listen to his engineers and not do something stupid like burn the engine out like Wehrlein did a few times last year

Ocon is more like Carlos Sainz in that they just let their driving do their talking

Wehrlein has been hyped up as the best young German driver coming through and backed by senior bosses at Mercedes which does seem to inflate his ego somewhat
 
An unfortunate race to be comparing someone with Sainz who did not cover himself with glory at any time over the weekend.
 
He stayed on the throttle after crashing into the wall at the start. Awesome guy. LOL

Perez is racing like he did at McLaren; there were plenty of similar moves against Button.
 
Great performance by Esteban at Monza. Got best result he could given the pace of the bigger teams but had a go at both attack and defence. Completely incident free race too. Why? Well Sergio Perez got nowhere near him all race!
 
Esteban Ocon, who is also known as Oconsistency, can equal Chiltons record of finishing 25 races in a row at the coming GP.

His record has been outstanding since moving from carts in 2012, he has only retired from 11 of 135 races. His last retirement was last year at the Norisring in DTM and his last reiterement in a Formula series was in 2014 at the Nürburgring.
 
But Franz Tost says he crashes into everyone! ;)

Ocon also holds a bizarre consistency record of having 10 2nd places in a row during his GP3 season - a weird fact when you think that includes the reverse grid races as well.
 
Ocon was questioned on the fact that his parents sold their house to fund his racing career to which he simply replied, “I don’t want to talk about it”. LOL:thumbsup:
 
Il_leone I know, it was just interesting to see that he acknowledged it and didn't go on whining like some other drivers would have done. It seemed very mature for such a young man.
 
Oh Esteban! I had such high hopes but your good season came at the wrong time. Now you're in a Force India stuck in the pack about to see Bottas re-sign for Merc and are doomed to become Nico Hulkenberg
 
Yes, it's a shame, he's by far the better Force India driver. He can only hope that the team delivers more than it does currently.
 
Are we sure Bottas will re-sign? Ocon would be a much better long term bet, unless they are worried about upseting Lewis. Le Clerc and Ocon in the second seats of the two best cars on the grid would be great fun.
 
Despite a wheelbarrow full of misfortune Bottas is still the closest of any of the top team number 2s points wise to their lead driver. He is quick. He often has good days when Hamilton has bad. He does not rock the boat. He gets on well with his team leader. He obeys team orders when he is asked. Look at it from a Merc point of view - why would they not re-sign him?

Also Toto Wolff is his manager and gets a big fat cut of his signing on fee. That's the cynical point of view.
 
If Hamilton re-signs for another 3 years as believed then it be interesting to see what is Bottas' contract conditions

Given the situation with Vettel and Verstappen, they may opt for another year so that they may think about getting either of these two with Hamilton

Now if I was Ocon I would have to consider going to Renault and use the fact that he might be France;s best driver to get himself in that car ahead of Gasly

Ocon will not stay at Force India forever as the Merc board do want to see their young drivers represent the brand long term and they are still waiting for one of their young drivers to win the driver's title for them

Sauber were too small so Frentzen could not do anything and Schumacher was never going to drive for them despite a verbal promise

Mclaren or Ron so to speak did not want to operate No 1 and No 2 like Schumacher nor did he pick Heidfeld when Mercedes were hoping it might happen

Mercedes was hoping for Schumacher to do it when he was way past his best. Wehrlein meanwhile no wants to hire him

Just as I finish this now it has clicked that Mercedes also have George Russell in F2 and he has won most races this season so he and Ocon could be fighting for the same seats in future
 
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