With the news that Esteban Ocon will replace Rio Haryanto at Manor for the rest of the season, we thought it best to have a look back over the French teenager’s career so far ahead of his Grand Prix début in Spa in a few weeks time.
Ocon began karting aged nine, winning three national championships and coming second in the WSK Euro Series between 2006 and 2011.
He moved into single-seaters for 2012, competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship. On his way to 14th place in the final standings, Ocon picked up a podium at his home race on Circuit Paul Ricard. The following year, he won at the same track before finishing third in the championship.
In 2014, the teenager beat his now Red Bull rival Max Verstappen to the FIA European F3 championship with a round to spare – after leading the standings from the end of the first event.
It was during this victorious F3 campaign that Ocon made his first appearance in the Formula One paddock. He was a Lotus test driver throughout 2014 and replaced Romain Grosjean for the first practice session of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He finished a very respectable 0.3 of a second down on Pastor Maldonado, who had driven the car all year. This was followed by a drive for Lotus in the post-season test after the race.
Despite taking just a single victory, Ocon won last year’s GP3 championship after finishing in the points in all but one of the 18 races. As a test driver for Force India, he drove the VJM08 in the post-race test at Barcelona during this period.
Mercedes missed out on signing Max Verstappen to their young driver programme, so opted to snap up Ocon last year whilst he was leading the GP3 field.
As a result, Ocon has driven for Mercedes in the DTM championship this season. Whilst he hasn’t had the best of luck in the series, he was rewarded with a day in this year’s W07 Formula One car in the post-Barcelona test in conjunction with his reserve driver role at Renault.
Now, Mercedes have moved the Frenchman’s loan from Renault to Manor – a Mercedes customer team – where he will partner fellow Mercedes protege Pascal Werhlein for the rest of the season. Many a team will be keeping an eye on how he does, too, with Ocon in the frame for a full-time race seat at Renault for 2017.
