Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon will compete with Alpine for the 2023 F1 season, his third year with the French outfit.

Esteban Ocon F1 Career (2016 - Present)

Ocon’s big F1 break came after the 2016 summer break when the Manor Racing team dropped Indonesian racer Rio Haryanto over unpaid sponsorship fees and called upon its association with engine partners Mercedes to supply a replacement.

However, though the minnow British team was enjoying something of a revival under new ownership, Ocon was still arriving in a back-marker effort against another Mercedes prospect in Wehrlein, who had hauled the team into the points and Q2 on more than one occasion already.

After a conservative opening few rounds, Ocon compared well with Wehrlein as the remainder of the season progressed and was unlucky not to score points in a rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix after dropping back to 12th on the final lap.

Ocon’s efforts in tricky circumstances for a struggling team that wouldn’t survive the winter duly caught the attention of other outfits. Though he was originally expected to pen a deal with Renault, he was instead picked to join Force India for the 2017 F1 season, getting the nod over Wehrlein.

Paired with the experienced Sergio Perez, Ocon impressed in more competitive machinery and the consistency he demonstrated during his junior years served him well as he scored in 17 of the first 18 races, peaking with a run to fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix. He’d failed to score just twice all year and only suffered his first F1 DNF in the Brazilian Grand Prix, ending a run of 27 consecutive race finishes.

However, his first full season was characterised by two controversial run-ins with Perez, which arguably spoiled the opportunity for better results. The first occurred during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as the pair disputed a provisional podium position when the pair collided after a safety car period, contact that forced Ocon to pit and Perez to retire.

Later in the season the two drivers came to blows again during the Belgian Grand Prix when Perez squeezed Ocon into the wall on the run to Eau Rouge. Again Perez was forced to retire while Ocon recovered to pick up points, but the incident triggered further friction and a war of words, prompting team boss Vijay Mallya to enforce team orders to prevent it happening again.

Despite the inter-team issues, Perez and Ocon remained on board with Force India for 2018 but in a team coming under increasingly financial hardship, good results were more scattered. Nonetheless, Ocon impressed with top six finishes in Monaco, Austria, Belgium and Italy, while he started the latter from the second row too. 

In the meantime, Force India’s dire financial situation came to a head at the Hungarian Grand Prix when it emerged the team was facing liquidation and immediate shutdown midway through the season. A savvy Perez subsequently launched legal action with the intention of putting Force India into administration, thus safeguarding jobs and giving it time to find a potential buyer. 

This came in the form of a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll - father of Williams driver Lance Stroll - who subsequently rebranded the team Racing Point from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. 

While Ocon and Perez remained until the end of the year, it was an open assumption Lance Stroll would be Racing Point-bound for 2019. Coupled with Perez’s greater sponsorship clout, Ocon embarked on seeking alternative employment for the following season. 

However, having reached a pre-agreement with Renault, Ocon was frozen out when it took the unexpected opportunity to hire Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull instead. 

With no competitive options on the grid remaining (despite interest from Williams), Ocon slipped off the grid for 2019 in favour of a test and reserve role with Mercedes, the series’ dominant force. However, test outings were minimal and while talks with Mercedes were held about being promoted to the team for 2020, its decision to re-sign Valtteri Bottas put an end to those hopes.

Sensing few forthcoming opportunities to progress with Mercedes, Ocon rekindled relations with Renault to replace Nico Hulkenberg and partner with Ricciardo for the 2020 F1 season, 

With his rustiness not helped by the prolonged delay to the start of the year, Ocon nonetheless proved a solid midfield contender on his arrival and was back into the top six by Round 4 at Silverstone before notching up a fifth place result in Belgium.

However, in a year that saw Renault enjoy a step up in form, Ocon was the weaker link compared with an in-form Ricciardo, out-qualifying the Australian on only two occasions and managing only 12th overall to his counterpart’s fifth in the final standings.

Nevertheless, it was Ocon that brought Renault its best result of the season, together with his maiden podium, with a run to second in a dramatic Sakhir Grand Prix.

After a difficult 2020 campaign, not many expected Ocon to run new teammate Fernando Alonso close.

With the Spaniard struggling to adapt on his return to F1, Ocon enjoyed the advantage in the first part of the season before struggling for form in the middle of the campaign, mainly due to an issue with his chassis.

He made the most of the chaos at the Hungaroring to beat Sebastian Vettel to secure his maiden F1 victory. 

2022 was the first year of Ocon's F1 career that he out-scored his teammate.

While teammate Alonso was on the wrong side of reliability, Ocon was once again very underrated for the way he performed throughout the season, with a handful of standout drives, most notably in Austria and at Suzuka.

Alongside Pierre Gasly for 2023, he will need to keep on top to ensure the team focuses on what he wants in the coming years.