But while Ocon won the crown, with Verstappen placing third, it was the latter who secured promotion to F1 with Toro Rosso for 2015, having been signed to the Red Bull Junior Team, while the former faced uncertainty when there was “no money” for him to continue competing as a Lotus F1 Team-backed driver.
From there, Ocon hounded Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, which led to him being placed in the GP3 Series with Frederic Vasseur’s ART Grand Prix outfit, winning the championship, joining the Silver Arrows’ junior programme and then debuting in F1 with Manor Racing midway through 2016.
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“From Max not winning the title, finishing third and then going to F1, and me not having even an option to continue racing, that was tough to swallow, for sure,” said Ocon, who has since raced for Force India, Racing Point, Renault and now Alpine. “I was very p****d off in those times.
“It was difficult, very, very difficult. To me it was not fair that… not saying that I would go to F1, because I always believed that my time would come, that if I put hard work enough, got the results, my time would always come.
“But in those moments I wasn’t sure that I was going to even continue racing, and for me that wasn’t fair. I’m glad that Toto, Gwen [Lagrue, Mercedes’ Driver Development Advisor], Fred, all of these guys, saw that it was not fair and found solutions for me to continue.”
News Summary:
- Esteban Ocon opens up on ‘fiery’ karting rivalry with Max Verstappen and why the Dutchman’s F1 debut was ‘tough to swallow’
- Check all news and articles from the latest Cricket updates.