Somaca issued the following announcement on Aug. 29.
Esteban Ocon will become from 2020 the new titular driver of the Renault F1 Team alongside Daniel Ricciardo. The Franco-Australian duo will have the responsibility to participate in the dynamics of the team for its fifth season in the Formula 1 World Championship. A logical continuation for the career of the talented Normand, well known at the team’s headquarters, Enstone.
He returns to Enstone, in a house he knows well! Former reserve driver of the team in 2016 and previously a member of the Lotus development program, Esteban Ocon will team up with Daniel Ricciardo from 2020 as Renault F1 Team rider.
Ocon has committed for several years with the team led by Cyril Abiteboul, who said he was “very happy to work with Esteban for the next two seasons”. For his part, the 22-year-old driver highlights his “pride of driving for Renault as a driver. ” He is the first French driver to occupy this tub since the return of the team in the world championship of Formula 1 in 2016. Before him, the last tricolor to have worn the colors of a team badged Renault F1 Team was Roman Grosjean in 2009.
FIRST F1 EXPERIENCE AT RENAULT
The signature of Esteban Ocon at Renault F1 Team is a logical continuation of the career and upward trajectory of the native of Evreux. After his karting debut, he shone the colors of the Lotus F1 Junior Team (the ancestor of the Renault Sport Academy ) from his first seasons in single-seater, finishing third in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship in 2013. He was then titled in the league European Formula 3 in 2014 and GP3 Series in 2015. The doors of Formula 1 are open to him. at Renault.
In 2016, Esteban Ocon becomes Renault F1 Team reserve driver for the grand return of the latter in the premier category of motorsport. He left Renault during the season to make his debut as a driver at the wheel of a Manor at the Belgian Grand Prix. He becomes, at 19 years and 345 days, the youngest French driver to start an F1 race – a record he still has.
IT HAS EVERYTHING A GREAT
His successful debut led him to join Force India for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He took over from Nico Hülkenberg, who has just signed up for Renault F1 Team. It is the latter he replaces today, returning to his first team, after a year 2019 spent as a reserve driver of the Mercedes AMG team.
In two and a half seasons, Esteban Ocon took the start of 50 Formula 1 Grand Prix, finishing 28 times in points and dropping only 6 times. It counts for better results a 3rd place in qualification (Belgium 2018), a 5th place in race (Mexico 2017) and an 8th place in the world championship (2017).
Original source: https://group.renault.com/actualites/blog-renault/esteban-ocon-un-pilote-francais-chez-renault-f1-team-a-partir-de-2020/
