Esteban Ocon
Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane (born 17 September 1996) is a French racing driver who competes for Alpine in Formula One. He made his Formula One debut for Manor Racing in the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, replacing Rio Haryanto. Ocon was a part of the Mercedes driver development programme until his move to Renault. He took his maiden Formula One victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. Early life. Esteban Ocon was born in Évreux, Normandy to Sabrine Khelfane and Laurent Ocon, a mechanic who owns a garage in Évreux. He is of Algerian and Spanish descent  and his paternal family is originally from Málaga. While competing in karting, his parents had to sell their family home, which included his father's garage, to fund his karting career. After selling the house, they lived and travelled to races in a caravan Ocon also used as a motor home. Early career. 2006–2011: Karting. Ocon entered karting in 2006, when he finished eighth in the Minime class of the French Championship. He won the championship in 2007 and continued his success by winning the Cadet class in 2008 ahead of Anthoine Hubert and Pierre Gasly. He then spent three  years racing in the KF3 category and competed in the Spanish Championship and Italian Open Masters. He won the French KF3 title in 2010 and finished as runner-up in the WSK Euro Series in 2011 behind Max Verstappen. At the age of 14, Ocon was signed by Gravity Sports management, a sister company of Renault F1 team. 2012–2013: Formula Renault. In 2012, Ocon made his debut in single-seaters, taking part in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with Koiranen Motorsport. He finished fourteenth with four point-scoring finishes, including being on the podium at his home round at Circuit  Paul Ricard. He also contested a partial campaign in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps with Koiranen, finishing seventh with two podiums, both of which came at the Red Bull Ring. He remained in the series for 2013, switching to the ART Junior Team. He recorded one pole position and won two races including at Circuit Paul Ricard, finishing the season in third place behind Pierre Gasly and Oliver Rowland. A partial campaign in the Northern European Cup produced a race win at the Hockenheimring and two further podiums. 2013–2015: Formula Three, GP3 and DTM. Ocon made his debut in Formula  Three machinery at the 2013 Macau Grand Prix with Prema Powerteam. He stalled at the start of the main race but went on to finish tenth. He continued his collaboration with Prema into the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He topped the standings at the first round at Silverstone Circuit and remained in the lead of the championship for the rest of the season. With two rounds to spare, he made a brief appearance in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Comtec Racing. Ocon was crowned FIA Formula 3 European champion with three races remaining, ahead of Tom  Blomqvist and Max Verstappen. He finished on the podium in twenty-one of the thirty-three races, winning nine, and recorded fifteen pole positions. Ocon made a second appearance at the Macau Grand Prix in 2014. He qualified fourth for the main race but was eliminated by a multi-car collision on the first lap. Ocon moved to the GP3 Series for 2015 with ART Grand Prix. Despite only scoring one race victory (two other victories were denied due to penalties), he won the championship by eight points ahead of Luca Ghiotto. Ocon recorded three pole positions and fourteen podium  finishes (including nine consecutive second-places) from eighteen races. Ocon drove for Mercedes-Benz in the first ten races of the 2016 DTM season, alongside his Formula One reserve driver role at Renault. He scored two points before his promotion to a Formula One race seat mid-season, finishing ninth in the first race at Circuit Zandvoort. He was replaced by Felix Rosenqvist following his promotion. Formula One career. Ocon's first experience of a Formula One car was on 22 October 2014, driving the Lotus E20 as part of a two-day test for Lotus F1. A month later , he made his Grand Prix weekend debut for Lotus during the first practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In May 2015, Ocon was called up by Force India to drive at the post-race test in Barcelona, after Pascal Wehrlein was forced to withdraw due to illness. Prior to him claiming the GP3 title, it was announced that Ocon would enter the Mercedes Junior Team. In February 2016, it was announced that Ocon would also act as reserve driver for the Renault Sport F1 team for the season. He took part in Friday practice sessions at four Grands  Prix for the team. Manor (2016). On 10 August 2016, Rio Haryanto was dropped from the backmarker Manor Racing team after his sponsors had failed to meet their contractual obligations. Ocon was named as his replacement for the second half of the season, driving alongside Pascal Wehrlein. Ocon made his Formula One debut at the , finishing sixteenth. He earned his best result of twelfth in the rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix, dropping out of the points positions on the final lap. Force India (2017–2018). 2017. On 10 November 2016, Force India announced that they had signed Ocon for the season  as part of his multi-year contract with Mercedes, with Sergio Pérez as his new teammate. Ocon scored his first Formula One point in his first race for Force India at the . He finished tenth in the first three races of the season. He then finished seventh at the and continued the points streak with fifth place at the . Following a twelfth place finish at the , Ocon recorded twelve consecutive points finishes but was often involved in incidents with teammate Pérez. At the , Pérez ignored requests from the team to let Ocon past to challenge Daniel Ricciardo for third place , and Pérez and Ocon eventually finished fifth and sixth respectively. The two drivers collided at the following , forcing Pérez into retirement and giving Ocon a puncture. Ocon eventually recovered to finish sixth. They made contact again at the , where Ocon was squeezed towards a wall leading up to the Eau Rouge complex. The collision ended Pérez's race and Ocon went on to finish ninth. Ocon later remarked that he was "furious" with Pérez and that he "risked [their] lives". Force India team owner Vijay Mallya stated that the repeated incidents were "very concerning" and that he would enforce team  orders thereon. Ocon started the in third place after the Red Bull drivers faced penalties, the highest grid position of his career. He went on to finish the race sixth. He spent much of the in third place and eventually finished fifth. His streak of finishing twenty-seven consecutive races ended at the , where he collided with Romain Grosjean on the first lap. He finished his first full season in Formula One eighth in the drivers' championship, scoring 87 of the team's 187 points. 2018. Ocon continued alongside Pérez at Force India in . Ocon's first points of the  season came with a tenth-place finish at the . At the , he was involved in a first-lap collision with Kimi Räikkönen that ended his race. Teammate Pérez would go on to claim a podium finish. Ocon retired with an oil leak at the next race, the . He recorded sixth and ninth-place finishes at the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix respectively, but then retired from the after a first-lap collision. Three more points finishes followed before the summer break. After the , Force India was in severe financial trouble and faced liquidation by HM Revenue and Customs. A group  of creditors including teammate Pérez took legal action against the team and put it into administration, saving the team from collapse and the jobs of its employees. The assets of the team were purchased by a consortium of investors led by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll, father of Williams driver Lance Stroll. The new owners confirmed that Ocon and Pérez would remain with the team for the rest of the season. It was later revealed that Ocon had an "informal agreement" to join Renault for before the team unexpectedly signed Daniel Ricciardo, leaving Ocon's future in doubt. At Racing Point  Force India's first race, the , Ocon achieved the joint-highest starting position of his career with third and went on to finish sixth. Ocon and Pérez collided on the first lap of the , causing Ocon to crash into a wall and end his race. The team described the collision as "unacceptable" and banned the drivers from racing each other. Pérez later apologised for his role in the accident. Two ninth places followed, before Ocon was disqualified from eighth place at the after his car was found to have exceeded fuel flow limits. At the , Ocon collided with race leader  Max Verstappen whilst attempting to un-lap himself, damaging both cars. Both drivers were able to continue racing and Ocon received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident. They argued just after the race (in which Verstappen finished second) and pushed each other several times. Both drivers were summoned by the FIA and Verstappen was ordered to undertake two days of public service "at the discretion of the FIA" for making deliberate physical contact with Ocon. Ocon retired from the next and final race of the season. He finished twelfth in the drivers' championship, scoring 49 points  to Pérez's 62. Mercedes reserve driver (2019). On 23 November 2018, it was announced that Ocon would join Mercedes as their reserve driver for after it became clear that he would be replaced at Racing Point by Lance Stroll—an outcome that was confirmed a week later. Ocon did not take part in a Grand Prix weekend during the year. He claimed to have been in discussions with Mercedes for the season, remarking that he was "very close" to replacing Valtteri Bottas at the team. Mercedes ultimately decided to continue with Bottas. Renault (2020). Ocon joined Renault for 2020 , signing a two-year contract and marking his return to Formula One as a full-time driver. He replaced Nico Hülkenberg and partnered with Daniel Ricciardo. Ocon qualified fourteenth on his Renault debut at the Austrian Grand Prix and finished eighth out of eleven finishers. He qualified fifth for the and was running in seventh place when he retired with a cooling issue. Ocon finished sixth at the , having gained positions in the closing laps when cars ahead suffered tyre failures. At the following weekend's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, he was issued a grid penalty after impeding George Russell  in qualifying and started fourteenth, but improved to finish eighth in the race. His best race finish since 2017 came at the , where he qualified sixth and finished fifth behind teammate Ricciardo. Ocon's brakes caught fire during a safety car period at the . The team was unable to repair the damage during the red flag period which occurred soon after, and Ocon failed to make the restart. A seventh-place finish followed in Russian Grand Prix, followed by retirement at the Eifel Grand Prix with a hydraulics problem. A long stint on medium-compound tyres at the Portuguese Grand  Prix produced an eighth-place finish, but a driveshaft failure ended his race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, his third retirement in five races. He qualified seventh for the and made his way into third place by the first corner where he and Ricciardo collided, sending Ocon into a spin. He was relegated to the back on the same lap when he was again spun around by Valtteri Bottas. Ocon went on to finish outside the points in eleventh place. He started eleventh at the . He had improved to fifth place by lap 54 of 87, assisted by collisions  on the opening lap and drivers making second pit stops. A virtual safety car (VSC) period followed, which third-placed Carlos Sainz Jr. and fourth-placed Ricciardo attempted to take advantage of by entering the pits. However, the VSC period ended whilst they were in the pit lane, nullifying their advantage and promoting Ocon to third place. He was soon overtaken by Sergio Pérez, however pit stop issues for the leading Mercedes cars allowed Ocon to claim his first Formula One podium by finishing second, Renault's best race result since . He ended the season twelfth in the drivers' championship , scoring 62 of the team's 181 points. Alpine (2021–). 2021. Renault rebranded as Alpine F1 Team for the season. The team signed two-time world champion Fernando Alonso to partner Ocon after Daniel Ricciardo left for McLaren. In the team's first race as Alpine, the , Ocon was rear-ended by Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin. Ocon finished the race 13th and Vettel later apologised for the incident. Ocon qualified ninth for the and was classified ninth in the race ahead of Alonso in tenth, earning the team their first points under the Alpine name. This began a  run of points finishes; Ocon qualified sixth and finished seventh at the before recording two ninth-place finishes at the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix. His first retirement of the season came at the with a turbocharger failure. He encountered issues at the following races – he struggled with tyre wear and finished fourteenth at the French Grand Prix, qualified seventeenth for both the Styrian and Austrian Grands Prix and retired from the latter after a first-lap collision with Antonio Giovinazzi. Ocon started eighth at the . Multiple collisions ahead saw him promoted to second place at the first corner, which  became first place when race leader Lewis Hamilton pitted for dry-weather tyres one lap later than the rest of the field. Ocon held on to the lead for the remainder of the race, fending off Sebastian Vettel to take his and Alpine's maiden Formula One victory. This win was followed by three more points finishes at the Belgian, Dutch and Italian Grands Prix. The took place in damp conditions and Ocon finished tenth having run the entire race distance on one set of intermediate-weather tyres. This was the first time a driver had completed a full race  distance without making a pit stop since . A collision with Antonio Giovinazzi at the broke Ocon's front wing and ultimately led to retirement. A fifth-place finish at the was followed by a near-podium at the ; Ocon briefly led the race at its first restart and ran in third place for most of the race, but was passed by Valtteri Bottas shortly before the chequered flag, finishing just 0.102 seconds behind. Ocon ended the season eleventh in the World Drivers' Championship, scoring 74 of Alpine's 155 points. 2022. Alpine retained Ocon and Alonso for the season. Ocon  finished seventh at the season-opening despite receiving a penalty for colliding with Mick Schumacher. He qualified fifth and finished sixth at the where a close battle with Alonso ended with Ocon being ordered by the team to hold his position. Ocon has signed a contract with Alpine to remain with the team until the end of the 2024 season. Racing record. Racing career summary. <nowiki>*</nowiki> Season still in progress. Complete Formula One results. Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. <nowiki>*</nowiki> Season still in progress. Formula One records. Ocon holds  the following Formula One record: