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Esteban Ocon recently recalled how Mercedes and Ferrari team principals, Toto Wolff and Frederic Vasseur, helped him continue his racing career.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Esteban Ocon initially reminisced about the time when he was in the Lotus F1 junior team and did not have any money to pursue his racing career.
"That was the moment that I was about to go and work with my dad as a mechanic because the programme I was in - Lotus F1 Junior Team, and Gravity Sport Management - had no money for me to continue," Ocon recalled.
Ocon later explained how he contacted Toto Wolff in 2015 to discuss possible opportunities. He stated that both Wolff and Frederic Vasseur came to his rescue and enabled him to race in the GP3 series, where he eventually won a championship.
"In this transition from 2014 to 2015, I was on the phone constantly calling Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] at the time and asking him if there were any solutions for me. I'd met him during that year because I won with a Mercedes engine in F3, and with Toto and Fred Vasseur, we found a solution for us to be able to continue racing and to race in GP3 - and I won that title as well," he continued.
In conclusion, he was thankful to Toto Wolff, Frederic Vasseur, and others around him who gave him solutions to continue his racing career.
"I am glad all those guys saw it wasn't fair and found solutions for me to continue," the Alpine driver added.
Esteban Ocon raced in the GP3 series with ART Grand Prix with the help of Frederic Vasseur. He won the championship in the same year, winning only one race and beating Luca Ghiotto by eight points. In the middle of 2016, he became a full-time F1 driver when he was hired by the Manor Racing team.
Esteban Ocon on following Lewis Hamilton's methods of preparing for a race weekend
Esteban Ocon recently shared how he followed Lewis Hamilton's note-taking method while preparing for a race weekend. Speaking on the High Performance podcast, the Frenchman explained how Hamilton used a paperboard to take notes in between race weekends. Ocon stated that he has also started doing so on his phone.
"He’s always had his paperboard, with notes. He was always making notes not to forget things from one year to another, or from one session to another. And this is [something] I do as well now. I was not doing notes before [Lewis] and now I got all my notes inside my phone," Ocon said.
Esteban Ocon had a poor start to the 2024 F1 season, particularly because Alpine was on the back foot altogether. The French team took a brand new route for their new car concept and platform. It could take them several months to improve their car with upgrades.
