Hamilton and Ocon contradict reports: 'That's complete nonsense!'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon are drivers who know they will race for a different team next season. The former is switching from Mercedes to Ferrari, while Alpine driver Ocon has yet to confirm his future but is confident of securing a drive. Past experience has often shown that drivers leaving soon are kept out of all kinds of technical meetings by their current teams as they are fearful valuable information will be taken to the new employer.
It is also thought by some that Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon are no longer kept informed of everything. "I can tell you that this is complete nonsense," Ocon responded. "I haven't been excluded from any meetings at the moment. I think the team would lose out from one more comment about the car and the drive moving forward if there was only 50% of the comment going on. So that hasn't been the case. I just hope it won't be the case."
To that, the Frenchman did add: "Of course, I'm not going to spend time working on next year's car. That is very clear, but it's also something that I can spend more time on, focusing on the 2024 machine. Otherwise, there's nothing else to say, but it's not as clear-cut as you think it is, or as you might say."
Hamilton understands the different attitude at Mercedes
For Lewis Hamilton, the exact same applies at Mercedes, the Briton reveals. "I've been here a long time. So if there's a point where they're like, we're preferring not to be in this meeting, that's totally fine with me. I mean, it's inevitable perhaps at one stage, but at the end of the day, nothing I have, no information that I would get this year will impact next year because I'm not in communication. Nothing passes hands until I start the season next year. And it takes time to develop things," Hamilton concluded.