Ocon feels capable of competing with Max Verstappen if he had the same car
In an interview with DAZN, Esteban Ocon talks about his aggressive driving style and being able to compete against Max Verstappen if they had the same car.
Firstly, Esteban Ocon defended his aggressive driving style, sometimes pushing the limits of reason in his defense. “« My way of driving is hard. That’s probably true, but I’m satisfied with it,” confessed the Frenchman.
“The truth is, I don’t want people to think that I’m tough, because I’m a nice guy on the outside,” he said.
Ocon wants to fight for titles and believes he can rival Verstappen
In all his seasons in F1, Esteban Ocon has never had better than a mid-grid car. Certainly, it has allowed him to bring back incredible results such as this victory in Hungary or this magnificent podium in Monaco this year. However, he wants to fight for wins in a fair manner, without having to rely on random events. Max is doing an incredible job, he dominates with Red Bull, but I don’t care who the driver is. I want to fight for the championship. I have always believed in myself. The road is still long, but my goal is to be world champion.
At least, the Frenchman feels ready to be in this position and believes he can be at the level of the best. « “I can see myself competing with Verstappen for the world championship if we had the same car,” Ocon said.
Two drivers who know each other very well
Let’s remember that these two know each other: they competed in a season of Formula 3 Europe in 2014, in which the Frenchman emerged as the winner. “I finally won the Formula 3 title, but it was a tough moment for me because Max had signed an agreement to go to Formula 1,” he said.
Already at that time, the character of the two drivers is the one we know today on the track, meaning aggressive. « We had something called the “triple record”, which consisted of winning all the races in the same weekend, Max did it once and in the following race in Moscow, I did it. In this race in Moscow, we were very close and we collided our wheels several times, like in the good old karting days », declared the Frenchman.
A rivalry that began a few years ago and that Esteban Ocon is ready to resume.
