‘I’m a very different driver’ – Ocon reveals his biggest lesson from ‘crazy’ 10 years in F1

Esteban Ocon admits it feels “crazy to think it’s been 10 years” since making his F1 debut at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, with the Haas driver set to celebrate the anniversary with new upgrades this weekend.

The Frenchman first raced in the second half of the 2016 season with Manor Racing, before embarking on stints with Force India, Alpine, and most recently, Haas. Over the decade, he claimed a shock maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, as well as podium finishes in Sakhir, Monaco and Sao Paulo.

Reflecting on his first race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps – in which he finished P16 while his Manor team mate Pascal Wehrlein retired – Ocon said: “Crazy to think it's been 10 years. Time flies, really.

“I don't feel like I've been in Formula 1 for 10 years – feels like I've been here for a couple of years, not more. So yeah, I'm excited about this weekend.

“I mean, back then it was very different, of course. It was my debut, there was a lot to learn. I was racing with the faces I was watching on TV, you know, Fernando [Alonso], Jenson [Button], [Kimi] Raikkonen, all these guys. It was quite special. I did a good job because I'm here 10 years later, so it's okay.”

Elaborating on the biggest lesson he’s taken away from his experience so far, he added: “Of course I'm a very different driver than I was back then, but the motivation is still the same. The motivation is still to take the car that you have in your hands as far as it can go, as high as it can go, and I’m still motivated as much as I can [be] behind the wheel.”

After starting the season on a high with Ollie Bearman scoring points in Australia and Japan, Haas have fallen behind midfield rivals like Racing Bulls and Alpine, leaving them without a top-10 Grand Prix finish since Round 6 in Monaco.

Nevertheless, Ocon has faith that they can return to stronger form, especially with multiple upgrades in the pipeline. He confirmed that some will be introduced at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, where he is hoping the squad can bounce back from recent struggles.

“It's been a tough couple of races as a team,” he said. “Of course, we are chasing a bit of performance at the moment. We do have a little bit of new stuff coming this weekend as well. We need to find more performance.

“I think we extracted the maximum out of the car in Silverstone, which was quite positive, but it was not quite enough. After the start, from even quite far back in the order, I went up to P11 and we could not hold the pace of the other midfield cars.

“This is what we need to work on. We know that and we're all focused on doing that hopefully here, or later when more parts come on the car.

“I’ve got trust in the team that we hopefully will not stay in that position and we will improve. We are doing a good job inside the team at the moment. There is no hiding.”