Ocon talks to Wolff and keeps Mercedes option open
F1 News
- Corwin Kunst
Esteban Ocon's contract expires after this year and it remains to be seen whether he can stay at Alpine. The Frenchman is also looking at opportunities elsewhere, and Mercedes are not immediately ruled out, the 27-year-old driver told reporters ahead of the weekend in Imola. Ocon's interests are looked after by Toto Wolff, and the same Toto Wolff is still looking for a replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
"I'm still a Mercedes junior. The management side is still Mercedes. That hasn't changed since 2015. We are discussing a lot with Gwen, with Toto as well. We will decide what's best for me in the future," Ocon, speaking to GPblog and others, refers to the conversations he is having with Wolff.
"There’s a lot happening behind, not only looking for a long term deal then also the short term," the one-time Grand Prix winner further clarified. "Formula 1, things can change quickly, but the important thing is to be secured as early as possible. That is a clear target of mine as always."
Ocon wants to learn from 2019
Ocon has bad memories of not being sure of an F1 seat early on. In 2019, he had to watch from the sidelines for a year after leaving Racing Point. The current number 15 in the World Championship has absolutely no appetite for another gap year.
"I don’t want to pay the price the second time like there was at the end of 2018, which was not a good memory, it was not for performance reasons. I think I’m doing a good job again this year and for the years that I’ve been in F1. So I deserve to have a place in F1," said Ocon, who further stated that he has no problems - and even thinks it makes sense - that he is talking to other teams about 2025 than just his current employer, Alpine.
"We’ll see. At the moment, my head is fully into this team, is fully dedicated, I’ve been in the project for years, that is very clear, but in Formula 1, it’s quite a dark side [to be without a deal] and not the one that I’ve ever enjoyed. So as soon as it will be done, the better it will be.”