Ocon tips Leclerc for 2019 title challenge
Esteban Ocon believes that his karting contemporary Charles Leclerc can challenge for the Formula 1 world championship title in his first year as a Ferrari driver in 2019.
Ocon and Leclerc came up through the karting ranks together, and the Force India driver sees the promotions of the Monegasque driver from Sauber to Ferrari and Pierre Gasly from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing as symbolic of a changing of the guard in F1.
“I think Charles will fight for the title next year, for sure,” he said. “At least it won’t be a surprise to me.
“You will see that Pierre and Charles are going to fight for wins and podiums. Probably the mentality of F1 is going to change with that, seeing that young drivers can do the job, too. That’s only going to help the younger ones coming in.”
Ocon stressed that he has rated Leclerc highly since they first met in karting some 13 years ago. Later the pair competed against both Gasly and Max Verstappen.
“We’ve been fighting all the way through, to be honest, me Charles and Pierre. Me and Charles more than with Pierre, because Pierre started a bit later in karting, and in the French championship I was winning and then I was fighting with Charles, and Charles was arriving and he was a rookie.
“I know him pretty well. The first race we raced together was in 2005 in Mini Karts, we were seven or eight years old.
"We were first and second. I was on the inside and we crashed on the last corner of the last lap, so he didn’t finish, and I finished like sixth or seventh. That was the first time we met.
“All our career we’ve been fighting like this together. I know he has a very good talent from day one. He’s one of the quickest guys out there, and I think he will show that next year, definitely.”
Asked who was the best driver on that group, Ocon said: “We fought more in international racing with Charles, and Pierre was already gone to single-seaters, because he was older. The fight was more Charles, me and Max, back in the day.
“Max won the World Series, I finished second. Charles won the World Cup. We won our races basically, not all of them, but it was quite equal, I would say.”
Charles Leclerc, CIK-FIA karting
Photo by: CIK/KSP
Share Or Save This Story
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Alpine explains Pierre Gasly crash that red-flagged FP2
Pierre Gasly tests new A110 Future prototype with Duke of Richmond at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Pierre Gasly finally receives Monaco GP trophy after Alpine penalty appeal
Lewis Hamilton takes "full responsibility" for disappointing Belgian GP result
Ferrari should have signed Gianpiero Lambiase for Lewis Hamilton, says F1 broadcaster
Why Charles Leclerc’s battle of the brakes has left him trailing Lewis Hamilton
"All weaknesses are gone": Is the new DTM spec tire hurting Porsche?
The Next Generation: Nikola Tsolov
Lewis Hamilton takes "full responsibility" for disappointing Belgian GP result
NASCAR's In Season Challenge comes down to this
The expectation on Aston Martin's shoulders as it prepares to debut its Hungarian GP updates
Welcome to the jungle? When Formula 1.5 came to Spa
Momentum restored: Antonelli overcomes bad luck to reclaim control at the Belgian GP
The data that reveals how different Spa is under F1's 2026 rules
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments