Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane (French: ; born 17 September 1996) is a French racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alpine.
Ocon experienced a successful junior career as he won the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship and the 2015 GP3 Series despite only winning one race in the latter campaign, which earned him a place at the Mercedes driver development programme, for whom he worked as a reserve driver. After winning the GP3 title, Ocon made his Formula One debut for Manor Racing in the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, replacing Rio Haryanto. He moved to Force India/Racing Point in 2017, partnering Mexican driver Sergio Pérez for the 2017 and 2018 Formula 1 seasons. Ocon left Racing Point at the end of 2018, and became a reserve driver for Mercedes in 2019 until his move to Renault for 2020. He took his maiden Formula One podium at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix and maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Despite not winning a race or taking a podium in 2022, he secured his best position in the drivers' standings in eighth with 92 points, 11 points clear of teammate Fernando Alonso, helping to secure fourth in the Constructors' Championship for Alpine. Ocon scored his third podium at the Monaco Grand Prix the following year, though he finished the season in twelfth in the drivers' standings, scoring 58 points.
Early and personal life
Esteban Ocon was born in Évreux, Normandy to Sabrina Khelfane and Laurent Ocon, a mechanic who owns a garage in Évreux. 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. As of 2022, Ocon lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Besides his native French language, Ocon also speaks English, Spanish and Italian.
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 finishing ninth in the first race at Circuit Zandvoort, before he was promoted to a Formula 1 race seat. 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 at Circuit Ricardo Tormo as part of a two-day test for Lotus F1 Team. A week later, he completed a test in the Ferrari F10 at Fiorano Circuit as a prize for his FIA Formula 3 European title. In November, 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 2016 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 Belgian Grand Prix, 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. This result placed Ocon 23rd in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Haryanto.
Force India (2017–2018)
2017 season
On 10 November 2016, Force India announced that they had signed Ocon for the 2017 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 Australian Grand Prix, and scored points at the next four races including fifth place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Following a twelfth place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix, Ocon recorded twelve consecutive points finishes but was often involved in incidents with teammate Pérez. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Pérez ignored requests from the team to let Ocon past to challenge Daniel Ricciardo for third place. The two drivers collided at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, forcing Pérez into retirement and giving Ocon a puncture. They made contact again at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Ocon was squeezed towards a wall leading up to the Eau Rouge complex. 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 Italian Grand Prix 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 Mexican Grand Prix in third place and eventually finished fifth. His streak of finishing twenty-seven consecutive races ended at the Brazilian Grand Prix, 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 points to Pérez's 100.
2018 season
Ocon continued alongside Pérez at Force India in 2018. Ocon's first points of the season came with a tenth-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he was involved in a first-lap collision with Kimi Räikkönen that ended his race, whilst teammate Pérez went on to claim a podium finish. Ocon retired with an oil leak at the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix. He recorded five more points finishes before the summer break, but retired from his home race, the French Grand Prix, after a first-lap collision with Pierre Gasly.
After Force India's financial collapse and the purchasing of its assets by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll – father of Williams driver Lance Stroll – during the summer break, 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 2019 before the team unexpectedly signed Daniel Ricciardo, leaving Ocon's future in doubt.
At Racing Point Force India's first race, the Belgian Grand Prix, 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 Singapore Grand Prix, 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. Ocon was disqualified from eighth place at the United States Grand Prix after his car was found to have exceeded fuel flow limits. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, he 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 finished the season twelfth in the drivers' championship, scoring 49 points to Pérez's 62.
Mercedes reserve driver (2019)
For the 2019 season, Ocon was replaced at Racing Point by Lance Stroll. There was an agreement in principle for Ocon to move to Renault, this subsequently fell through. Ocon joined Mercedes as their reserve driver for 2019 to drive their Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+. Ocon did not take part in a Grand Prix weekend during the year. He claimed to have been in discussions with Mercedes for the 2020 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. He was running in seventh place at the Styrian Grand Prix when he retired with a cooling issue. At the 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 Belgian Grand Prix, where he qualified sixth and finished fifth behind teammate Ricciardo.
Ocon's brakes caught fire during a safety car period at the Tuscan Grand Prix. The team was unable to repair the damage during the red flag period which occurred soon after, and Ocon failed to make the restart. He experienced further mechanical retirements at the Eifel Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He qualified seventh for the Turkish Grand Prix and made his way into third place by the first corner, but separate collisions with Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas resulted in him finishing outside the points in eleventh place.
Ocon started eleventh at the Sakhir Grand Prix. 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 2010. He ended the season twelfth in the drivers' championship, scoring 62 points to Ricciardo's 119.
Alpine (2021–2024)
2021 season
Renault rebranded as Alpine F1 Team for the 2021 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 Bahrain Grand Prix, Ocon was rear-ended by Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin. Ocon finished the race thirteenth and Vettel later apologised for the incident. Ocon was classified ninth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ahead of Alonso in tenth, earning the team their first points under the Alpine name. His first retirement of the season came at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a turbocharger failure. 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 Hungarian Grand Prix. 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 points finishes at the next three races. The Turkish Grand Prix 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 1997.
A collision with Antonio Giovinazzi at the United States Grand Prix broke Ocon's front wing and ultimately led to retirement. A fifth-place finish at the Qatar Grand Prix was followed by a near-podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; 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 drivers' championship, scoring 74 points to Alonso's 81.
2022 season
Alpine retained Ocon and Alonso for the 2022 season. Ocon finished seventh at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix despite receiving a penalty for colliding with Mick Schumacher. He qualified fifth and finished sixth at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix where a close battle with Alonso ended with Ocon being ordered by the team to hold his position. A crash in practice for the Miami Grand Prix forced him to miss qualifying and start last on the grid. He recovered in the race to finish ninth and was promoted to eighth when Alonso received a penalty. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Ocon qualified twelfth and finished seventh, ahead of Alonso, after holding off the fast-charging Lando Norris. Ocon finished ninth at the Monaco Grand Prix but was demoted to twelfth by a penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton.
At the British Grand Prix, Ocon qualified fifteenth due to battery issues and retired from the race with a fuel pump problem, despite the significant upgrade packages brought to the Alpine A522. Five points finishes followed, including fifth at the Austrian Grand Prix. Ocon qualified fifth at the Belgian Grand Prix but was demoted to sixteenth by an engine component penalty. He recovered in the race to score points in seventh place. He started seventeenth at the Singapore Grand Prix having experienced brake problems in qualifying and then retired from the race with an engine failure. Ocon's best result of the season thus far came at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he held off Lewis Hamilton to finish fourth. Ocon was eliminated in the first qualifying session and started eighteenth at the United States Grand Prix; he finished eleventh after taking new power unit elements and starting from the pit lane. He was involved in separate collisions with teammate Alonso in the São Paulo Grand Prix sprint, with the damage to his car dropping him to seventeenth place. He recovered to score points in the race.
Ocon ended the season eighth in the drivers' championship, equalling his best result previously achieved in 2017. He scored 92 points to Alonso's 81.
2023 season
Ocon is under contract to remain with Alpine until the end of the 2024 season. For 2023 he gained a new teammate in former karting rival Pierre Gasly as Alonso departed to Aston Martin. His training was impacted prior to the start of the season when he got "very sick" with a lung virus.
At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Ocon received penalties for being out of position on the grid, failing to serve the penalty correctly and for speeding in the pit lane. He eventually retired from the race with mechanical issues. He started sixth and scored his first points of the season at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, finishing eighth. Running in tenth place at the final restart of the Australian Grand Prix, Ocon was involved in a heavy collision with teammate Gasly, who apologised for his role in the incident. Ocon crashed in qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Alpine then made changes to his car under parc fermé conditions, forcing him to start the sprint race and the main race from the pit lane. During the race, Ocon ran on the hard tyres until the last lap. Photographers began to enter the pit lane, not realising Ocon was yet to pit, and narrowly avoided being hit by his car.
He started third at the Monaco Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc ahead received a penalty. Ocon held off Carlos Sainz Jr. in the first half of the race but lost a place to George Russell during the pit stops. A mistake and a penalty for Russell allowed Ocon back into third place, earning him his third career podium and the Driver Of The Day award. More points came at the Spanish and Canadian Grands Prix and in the rain-affected Austrian Grand Prix sprint race where he held off Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and McLaren's Lando Norris. In the main race, Ocon finished outside the points after receiving a penalty for an unsafe pit box release. Post race, he received another four penalties for track limits violations, totalling 30 seconds. His five penalties for the Grand Prix gave him the record for the most driving penalties in a single race in the history of Formula One. Consecutive retirements followed with a hydraulics leak at the British Grand Prix and a first-lap crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He improved from fourteenth on the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix to score points in eighth place.
Ocon retired from the Italian Grand Prix "for safety reasons" due to a steering issue. He then retired from sixth place at the Singapore Grand Prix with a gearbox problem, his fourth non-finish in six races. He finished the Qatar Grand Prix in seventh despite the hot weather conditions causing him to vomit into his helmet. His seventh retirement of the season came at the United States Grand Prix after a collision with Oscar Piastri. Ocon started sixteenth at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, avoided collisions to improve to eighth on the first lap and climbed to fourth place by the end of the race. He ended the season twelfth in the World Drivers' Championship with 58 points, one place and four points behind teammate Gasly.
Karting record
Karting career summary
Original Wikipedia article last retrieved on 19 March 2024.