Esteban Ocon driver profile — Mode Push: F1 Podcast

Before we dive in, why do we love Ocon?

Bridgette: Under the radar, that’s the perfect way to describe him. He's your sneaky favorite. He just seems so likable, but also ruthless and results driven. He reminds me of Aladdin from the Disney movies. He's the prince, the undercover prince. I picture him doing what he has to survive but he's a prince, he's royalty under all of it. He just needs to shine up and get there. I think Toto Wolff would agree with me. He had so much potential and has created a life out of pretty much nothing, especially relative to his peers. He definitely doesn't ever take it for granted. Being on the track is a reminder that he’s made it; he always appreciates it, but at the same time he knows he's got this survivor mentality. So, he's my Aladdin.

Monica: I did not see it, and now it's all I can see, so that's a really good analogy. Also, I'm picturing him in the outfit, which would make a great Halloween outfit. He's so interesting because he seems like the sweetest guy, but he is a total killer. Seeing him race with Alonso – who we all know as a killer – he beat Alonso head on and talked about it openly as their relationship deteriorated post 2022’s silly season. He can go up against anyone and hold his own. There's no deference there. I respect that he has earned the seat. He finished basically best of the rest of the drivers and still keeps it very low key.

Who is Esteban Ocon? From the top.

Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane was born September 17th, 1996. He's 26 years old, so he's had a 20+ year relationship with country-mate Pierre Gasly and grew up with a cohort including Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

He grew up in Evreux, Normandy, a suburb about 90 minutes due west of Paris. It's a small town with less than 50,000 people that was once an ancient Roman city with crazy architecture. He's actually Spanish, French, and Algerian and he's nationalized as an American citizen, so he's a pretty worldly citizen.

He is the only child of Laurent Ocon and Sabrine Khelfane. His parents had a small garage in this small town. His dad was a mechanic who sold cars and repaired them as his profession. His mom ran the business side of it. These were humble beginnings – the whole family lived on the upper floors of the mechanic shop.

He started karting at age 10, which is on the later side these days. But he’d always had this natural sort of draw to cars, literally growing up surrounded by them. He absolutely idolized Michael Schumacher, which is amazing because Mick is now one of his best friends.

His earliest rival in motorsport was Pierre Gasly. Ocon started posting results immediately, placing in the top 10 in his first year of karting. Since he was the family’s only child, they decided to try to give everything for their child. So they sold the mechanic shop, their main source of income and their home. They lived out of a caravan to afford karting and drive to these races. Karting can cost well over $100,000/year to be competitive, so they basically had to scrape together everything they had just to give him the opportunity. They homeschooled him – amazingly, he actually speaks four languages. The family put all their resources into making this little boy's dreams come true, even though the odds were obviously slim for the limited 20 seats in F1.

Just two little ones from Normandy with some big ambitions…Este+Pierre4Life!

Thankfully, he won the karting championship in 2007, then the cadet class in 2008. Ocon spent three years in a category called KF3, another teenage karting formula hybrid, winning the French title in 2010 and finishing as runner up in 2011 to none other than Max Verstappen.

At the age of 14, as he was seeing success in Europe he was signed by Gravity Sports Management, a sister company of Renault. There, he caught the eye of none other than our man, Toto Wolff, who would go on to manage, mentor and watch over him.

Este’s unlikely ascendancy into F1

So how did Ocon get going? He won F3 in 2014, actually beating Max Verstappen after losing to him in their karting days. They have been at it since day one and were considered pretty closely matched. You can read into the reasons, but Max ended up getting promoted right from F3 to F1, whereas Esteban had a much longer road.

Ocon went to GP3 and got sponsorship to continue up. He found support from Lotus, but soon after they hit financial issues, forcing him to scramble at the last minute. He’s said his alternative at the point was to become a mechanic like his father. Wolff stepped in as fairy godfather and helped find him another program. Ocon ended up skipping F2/GP2.

In terms of sponsors, Ocon’s got bigger names behind him now as a mainstay at Alpine. Those brands include Castrol, Infinity, BP Ultimate, DuPont and Microsoft.

Financial Ups and Downs

In a crazy turn of events, Wolff landed him a seat midseason in 2016 with a group called Manor Racing. Manor Racing was once an iteration of Virgin Racing and would later become the Haas team. Just as Ocon stepped into the seat – literally after his first race – the team declared bankruptcy. Déjà vu, anyone?

Ocon looks seatless until the end of 2016 when Force India signed him to drive alongside Sergio Perez. Again, a Toto Wolff maneuver. Even though he had a multi-year contract with Force India, he was technically a Mercedes driver on loan.

He had a successful first season with Force India, scoring points in his first race of 2017. He finished his first full F1 season scoring 87 points in the driver's championship, which is quite impressive in a midfield team.

In 2018, calamity strikes again. Early in the season (and Drive to Survive) we see Force India flashing warning signs of bankruptcy, so much so that by midseason they have completely collapsed. After a period of limbo, the team’s assets were purchased by none other than Lawrence Stroll, father of Lance Stroll and Canadian billionaire. Lance was at Williams at the time, which Lawrence was basically funding to keep afloat. He decided to just buy his own team instead of waiting for the turnaround.

The Strolls let Checo and Ocon finish out the season, although it's a pretty underwhelming season for them. The team was stuck under immense pressure from uncertain finances, a lack of resources to put back into the car, and then new ownership. They basically just survived. The drivers couldn't even crash their cars because they would not have the funds to remake them.

So that’s three teams in a row where Ocon was caught in the crosshairs of bankruptcy! Truly a record.

Unfortunately for him, he was backchanneling a contract with Renault at the 2018. Before he could sign it though, Team Principal at the time, Cyril Abiteboul completed his mission impossible and signed Danny Ricciardo instead.

So, Ocon was left seatless for 2019. Enter Toto Wolff (again).

Ocon becomes Mercedes’ reserve driver in 2019. He’s said that his time with Mercedes was invaluable to his career development because he’d never worked with a properly funded and well-run organization. He was in the simulator, traveling with the team, working with Lewis Hamilton and the best-in-class professionals at Mercedes to get as much as he possibly could out of a tough situation. Another example of his survivor, “take nothing for granted” mentality.

The Renault - Alpine Years

Finally, 2020 comes around. Ocon is given the opportunity to join Alpine with a two year contract. He replaced Nico Holberg and partnered with Ricciardo for one year. Ocon had a slow start to the season but made the most of it by taking his maiden pole and then getting his first podium at Sakhir that year, Renault’s best result since 2010.

He ended the season 12th in the driver's championship, scoring only 62 points to Ricciardo’s 120. Flash forward one season: Renault becomes Alpine and Ricciardo departs for McLaren. Alonso makes his return to his former team and Esteban has the opportunity to drive under one of the most prolific, established drivers in the game.

Alonso and Ocon actually create a really cute sweet bond for their first couple of seasons together. That culminated in Esteban's maiden victory at the Hungarian GP in 2021. Ocon ended up defending against Vettel on inferior tires while Alonso held off Hamilton for laps, “defending him like a lion”. They ended up coming in first and fourth in one of the sweetest moments in F1. It clearly meant the world to Ocon – he slept with his trophy that night!

Sadly, his family wasn't there. But the celebrations continued in style because it was also the first time a French driver won in a French car with a French engine since Alain Prost in 1983. France’s President Macron called him personally afterwards to congratulate him on this win.

After the win, Ocon went on to be in the points for five straight races. He ended 2021 11th in the driver’s championship. In 2022, he came out even stronger, having a consistently good season versus Alonso. He finished 8th on the year, beating his teammate and taking his highest ranked finish aside from that first year at Force India / Racing Point.

Sadly, after Alonso decided to cut bait and join the Strolls at Aston Martin, the duo’s love affair seemed to wane. Alonso took a couple swipes at Ocon, who quickly returned the favor, claiming he had done 90% of the work to develop the Alpine car whereas Alonso only did 10%.

Now, he’s established himself as team leader at Alpine with Gasly joining next year. They’ll both have multi-year deals as frenchmen driving for a French team, reunited from their karting days.

In terms of stats, Ocon has spent 50% of his seasons in F1 with teams that faced bankruptcy. He has started in 111 Grand Prix and has two podiums and one win. Mr. Consistency, he has 68 points finishes, i.e. he scores in 62% of the races he starts. That is especially amazing given that he’s only raced for midfield teams.

Ocon and Gasly have been rumored to have had some girlfriend drama in their tween years, causing a fallout which was later reported by Mick Schumacher’s uncle. That said, they each posted a sweet reunion pic upon Gasly’s contract signing, suggesting these two kids from Normandy might be back in cahoots.

Ocon off the grid

Esteban has always seemed pretty hush hush off track. In his spare time, he watches motorsports, UFC and like a classic Gen Z, considers gaming his first hobby.

He met his girlfriend, Elena Berri, in Valencia, Spain in 2017. She is an Italian model and newly minted luxury real estate agent in Switzerland, which perhaps imply they live together? Apparently she did not know Esteban was a Formula One driver when they met, which is actually believable given his crazy trajectory into the sport.

His best friends in the world are Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher. They seem inseparable which is particularly sweet since his childhood on the road and in homeschool was likely quite lonely. That said, he might win for cutest child star!

HOT Gen Z action at this table…are those Moscow Mules??

A possible career change?

Q: You always see George Russell and Esteban Ocon slinking around the paddock, miles above the other drivers. How tall is Ocon, really?

A: He’s 6’1” which makes him the tallest driver on the grid! Possibly related to his height, he’s also talked about having 4% body fat and sleeping around 12-14 hours a night…

Relatedly, Oocon used to take the Steve Jobs approach to fashion – before his first GP win, he would always wear black jeans and his team polo shirt. He didn't care about fashion, and his outfit became an F1 meme. He seemed singularly focused on being the best racer possible.

After his win, GQ did a whole profile on him. Alpine realized that his body was made to be a male model. They hired a stylist for him, in a full Princess Diaries / Miss Congeniality transformation. Ocon hilariously asked if the stylist was called a “designer” in his GQ interview, clearly still learning the ropes of this new world. He’s taken to it easily though, helping debut a collaboration between Alpine and Berluti at the Miami GP.

We can’t wait to see what he does with this newfound stability at Alpine, an upward trajectory in the stats and a burgeoning modeling career!

Esteban Ocon: F1’s Undercover Prince?