Esteban Ocon is lined up to take Nico Hulkenberg’s vacant seat at Force India for next season. It has not been denied that Force India are looking his way, and with his Mercedes
It has not been denied that Force India are looking his way, and with his Mercedes backing, it would make sense for the works team to put him in a car running their engines. However, it does seem that Mercedes may be side-stepping their other junior driver Pascal Wehrlein with Ocon getting the next promotion.
Wehrlein appeared to be the man the German carmaker had the most interest in over the past few years. So why all of a sudden is the Frenchman now leading the race to a future Mercedes seat?
Could it be to do with financial backing? Or is there a bigger reason why Ocon is potentially getting the promotion over Wehrlein?
When he joined the sport in 2016 it looked like Mercedes were setting him up for a future in their works team. He proved his worth becoming the youngest ever DTM champion in 2015 and results in previous years also suggesting he was a young driver with a lot of talent.
The first half of his rookie season saw him paired with Rio Haryanto. It was clear that the Indonesian was no match for the young German as Wehrlein consistently out performed his teammate and became the second driver in Manor’s history to score a point for the team.
It was, therefore, not surprising when the team opted to switch Haryanto out mid season, replacing him with Ocon.
It is interesting to think if there was more of a reason behind the mid-season switch to Ocon as Wehrlein’s teammate. Maybe Mercedes were trying to compare their two young drivers directly against one another in a way to gauge who they felt should be pushed up the grid first? Perhaps Mercedes wanted to see Wehrlein pushed a little harder by a teammate and how he would react to that pressure.
None of this is confirmed, of course, but it is intriguing to think there may have been a bigger reason behind the Manor driver swap. As it is commonly known, Haryanto had a lot of finacial backing for his Manor seat and Manor is one of the teams on the grid who needs as much finacial backing as possible. So it was probably not a funding problem that saw Haryanto lose his seat.
Ocon’s performance since his arrival at Manor cannot be knocked. He has performed consistently and has put pressure on Wehrlein in qualifying and the race.
The duo have been fairly level in performance in the latter stage of the season though from recent race results, it does appear that Ocon needs Wehrlein to not complete a race to finish ahead of him. This has been the case in two of the three times Ocon has finished ahead of Wehrlein since he joined at Spa.
Both Ocon and Wehrlein’s path to F1 have been very similar. They both joined teams as test drivers in 2014 – Wehrlein with Mercedes, Ocon in what was then Lotus – before both becoming Force India test drivers in 2015 and winning the Championship of their respective series, Wehrlein in DTM and Ocon in GP3. In 2016 they are both test drivers for Mercedes whilst Ocon is also a test driver for Renault alongside their Manor Racing commitments.
However, it always seemed that Mercedes favoured Wehrlein as it was he who competed in the test days and the young drivers test for Mercedes. This could even still be the case as Mercedes called on Wehrlein to fill in for Lewis Hamilton for the Pirelli 2017 tyre test when the Brit could not take part due to a foot injury.
So why, if Mercedes are more behind Wehrlein than Ocon, would the Brackley team be more inclinded to leave Wehrlein at Manor and let Ocon take the free seat at Force India?
The rumours and talk indicates strongly that Ocon will take the seat beside Perez in Force India next year. Wehrlein has come out recently and expressed he would be happy to race for another year with Manor. But if Mercedes want Wehrlein in a works car first why would they not be pushing Wehrlein up the field to get him more competitive experience?
It could be that Mercedes want to keep Wehrlein flexiable and available so that when either Hamilton or Nico Rosberg move on from the team he will be ready to take on their seat. If Force India are asking for their new driver to sign a multi-year contract it could be tactical for Mercedes to keep Wehrlein on a one-year deal at Manor so he is available for a potetnial step up next year.
Perhaps they think that with Ocon’s GP3 experience (and winning the Championship in his first and only year in the series) Ocon is more intuned to single seater racing, and that Wehrlein needs more ‘practice’ in single seaters with not a lot of pressure on him. If he stays in a Manor then there will be no pressure to win or to stand on podiums. Ocon could find that, having Perez as his teammate if he moves to Force India next year, he would be under immense pressure to keep up with the Mexican. Maybe Mercedes believe Wehrlein is not ready for this pressure yet.
It could all boil down to attitude. As presented above and during this season, talent wise Ocon and Wehrlein are fairly matched in their capabilities in a car. They both have good potential and impressive career stats in feeder series, but they have completely differnet attitudes in the car.
A good example of this is during a practice session for the United States Grand Prix. Wehrlein had spun the car at Turn 19 and got stuck in the gravel, meaning his session was effectively over. The team instructed him to turn off his Manor in fear of over heating it and causing more damage. However, Wehrlein refused, telling his team he thought the marshals were going to come and push him out of the gravel so he could carry on.
It could be this attitude that has seen Wehrlein take the back seat in negotiations for a better seat. Even after Wehrlein was told that the marshals were not coming and it was critical for his car that it be turned off the German still did not comply. This showed a sign of disrespect to his engineer’s who could see the potential problems on the data of the car, and suggested he thought he knew better than the team. The real question is would this be the type of attitude teams want in a driver?
It does see that Ocon has come out on top in this pairing, with the French driver looking on the verge of confirming with Force India for 2017. The reasons behind Ocon getting the promotion and Wehrlein having to wait at least a year longer is unknown. But with Mercedes public interest in Wehrlein in his career building up to Formula One it does seem a bit odd that they would not push for Wehrlein to get a better seat over Ocon.
