fbpx

It looks good for Ocon

31 Jul 2019 
by Ziv Knoll
4778 views

Do not listen to the commentators who tell you Valtteri Bottas has one more race to convince Toto Wolff to keep him in the Mercedes squad.

Toto Wolff knows very well by now the respective qualities of the Finn and of Esteban Ocon who aims to replace him. He has only said last week-end at Hockenheim that a final decision will be taken in August.

But his further comments heard in Germany were very instructive. He said : “We’ll have to look into who will be the right driver for us not only for 2020, but for the years beyond.”

Esteban Ocon will soon turn 23 and Valtteri Bottas will turn 30 at the end of August.

30 is certainly in Formula 1 standards not old, on the contrary, it’s the age of full potential, the age of maturity.

But although Bottas has performed at a very high level, coming close to the speed of Lewis Hamilton is a great performance, the feeling is that Esteban Ocon has an even greater potential, a greater margin of progression.

He’s the only one who gave a hard time to Verstappen in Formula 3, after all.

Both careers of Bottas and Ocon have been steered by Wolff, so there is no advantage for one of them there, but the Austrian has this year witnessed first hand the speed and the technical feedback of the Frenchman in Brackley’s simulator, and it seems Ocon was impressive.

Now it’s decision time. Ocon can not stay on the sidelines one more year, a driver of his caliber should be racing, and other teams are showing interest.

So, my feeling is that Toto Wolff is going to announce somewhere in September the signing of Esteban Ocon on a long term contract, … unless he can snatch Max Verstappen from Red Bull, which is a tall order.

If he doesn’t sign Esteban Ocon now, Renault will be very happy to take him on, and the young Frenchman will not be available for a few years.

Anyway, the French driver deserves to be on the 2020 grid, and we are anxious to see him race again.

 


Join the Conversation

1 Comment

  1. On le souhaite en France. Cela fait trop longtemps que la Marseillaise n’a pas retenti sur un podium de F1.

    2
Leave a comment