Esteban Ocon, future driver of the Haas team in 2025, looked back on his reputation, believing that the public has “the bad image” by him.
Some events during the Frenchman’s career have, in fact, worked against him. The collision on the track with Max Verstappen, then in the parc ferme, in Brazil in 2018, for example, did not help the image of the current Alpine driver.
We can also cite the internal battles, often bitter with his teammates, such as with Sergio Pérez at Force India, or even Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly at Alpine. Often very aggressive on the track, Esteban Ocon has not only made friends.
The Frenchman, however, defends himself from this reputation, taking a specific example to justify his point.
“I think people have the wrong image of me,” Ocon told Auto Motor und Sport. “One day, after an event, I spoke for five minutes to a young journalist who said to me: ‘You know, Esteban, I didn’t really like you before, but after our conversation, I really like you.’ ”
“I found it very interesting. People can have an image of you that doesn’t correspond at all to reality.”
Also read: Oliver Oakes: Alpine F1 team at Enstone “is now stable”
A new start at Haas
Esteban Ocon also spoke about his choice to join the Haas team in 2025. The winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix notably highlighted Ayao Komatsu, the team director since last winter.
“We spoke to several teams,” Ocon said. “Finally, what convinced me the most was that Ayao [Komatsu] leads the team. He is a seasoned racing engineer who knows what he is talking about.”
“Haas currently employs 300 people, but they do more than 1,500-person teams.”
“And there are big investments in the future that will affect performance. The team has clear goals and I want to be part of them.”
“I have already visited the factory and seen the passion with which everyone works there. I missed that feeling.”
The arrival of Toyota alongside Haas F1 is not explicitly mentioned by the Frenchman, because it had not yet been made official at the time of the interview. As a reminder, Toyota Gazoo Racing is now the “official technical partner” of Haas F1, as part of a multi-year agreement.
