Formula 1: Esteban Ocon likely won’t land a ride for 2019
By Asher Fair
With George Russell set to drive for Williams Racing in the 2019 Formula 1 season, Esteban Ocon will likely be left without a ride.
Esteban Ocon, whose Formula 1 career began in the 2016 season when he drove for Manor Racing MRT in the season’s final nine races, has driven for Force India (Sahara Force India and Racing Point Force India) since the 2017 season began.
Prior to landing his ride with Manor Racing MRT, Ocon test drove for Lotus in the 2014 season, Force India in the 2015 season and both Mercedes and Renault Sport in the 2016 season.
The 22-year-old Frenchman is widely considered a future Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport driver and world champion considering the fact that he is a part of the Mercedes driver development program as well as the potential that he has shown since arriving in Formula 1.
However, it has been all but confirmed that Ocon will not have a ride in the 2019 Formula 1 season. In fact, Ocon himself confirmed that he will be leaving Force India after the 2018 season ends despite the fact that the team did not officially announce it and have still not yet done so.
Why not? What it all effectively boils down to is the fact that his father didn’t buy a team.
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Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire father of second-year Williams Martini Racing driver Lance Stroll who spent $80 million to get his son into Formula 1 as an 18-year-old last year, led a consortium to purchase Force India this summer. As a result, it has been all but confirmed that Lance will replace Ocon in the 2019 season.
The ride of Ocon’s teammate Sergio Perez would appear to be safe, as his backers were the ones who sent Force India into administration to protect them from the threat of a winding-up offer, allowing the Stroll-led consortium to capitalize and make their purchase of the team.
With Force India’s 2019 driver lineup having been effectively set for the last few months, this meant that the only potential Mercedes seats left available for Ocon were the seats at Williams, the only other Mercedes team in Formula 1 aside of the factory Mercedes team and Force India.
Sergey Sirotkin has been tipped to return to the Grove-based team next season despite the fact that his performances have been subpar to say the very least through the first 17 races of his rookie season.
Why? Three words: substantial financial backing. The 23-year-old Russian is financially backed by SMP Racing, and considering the fact that Lawrence Stroll will no longer be writing paychecks to Williams next year as well as the fact that Martini will no longer sponsor the team next season, they will need all of the funding that they can get.
The second Williams seat was set to go to either Ocon or Mercedes junior driver and ART Grand Prix Formula 2 driver George Russell, and it did. But is is Russell, not Ocon, who is set to be Stroll’s replacement at Williams next year.
This means that the only seat left available on the grid for the 2019 season is the second seat at Scuderia Toro Rosso, but Dan Ticktum has been tipped to sign with the Italian team once he gets enough points on his FIA Super License to do so.
As a result, one of the most talented drivers in Formula 1 will likely not have a ride in 2019.
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With Esteban Ocon likely set to be without a ride in the 2019 Formula 1 season, what does his future hold? Will he return to Formula 1, and if so, when?