Esteban
Ocon

Esteban Ocon was born on 17 September 1996 in Évreux, Normandy. He started karting in 2006, won the French championship in 2007 and took the Cadet class in 2008, ahead of Anthoine Hubert and Pierre Gasly. He added the French KF3 title in 2010 and finished runner-up in the WSK Euro Series in 2011, behind Max Verstappen.

He moved into single-seaters in 2012 with the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and in 2013 finished third with ART, winning two races. In 2014 he became FIA Formula 3 European champion with Prema, ahead of Tom Blomqvist and Max Verstappen, with nine wins and fifteen pole positions. In 2015 he won the GP3 Series with ART by eight points from Luca Ghiotto. A member of the Mercedes junior programme from 2015, he contested the first ten DTM races of 2016 before being promoted to Formula One.

Ocon made his Formula One debut at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix with Manor, replacing Rio Haryanto. After nine races he finished 23rd in the standings. In 2017 he partnered Sergio Pérez at Force India, scored a point in his first race for the team and finished eighth overall, including a fifth place in Spain. He stayed with Force India in 2018 and finished twelfth. In 2019 he had no race seat and worked as a reserve driver for Mercedes.

He returned as a full-time driver with Renault in 2020 and took second place at the Sakhir Grand Prix, his first podium. When the team became Alpine in 2021, he won the Hungarian Grand Prix alongside Fernando Alonso, the first victory for both Ocon and Alpine. He finished eighth in the 2022 standings and third at the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix. In 2024 he set his first fastest lap in the United States and finished second in São Paulo, ahead of team-mate Gasly, giving Alpine its first double podium. He left the team after the Qatar Grand Prix that year.

Ocon joined Haas in 2025, driving alongside Oliver Bearman, and ended the season fifteenth. He races for Haas in 2026 as well.

Source: Wikipedia, “Esteban Ocon”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.