Esteban Ocon Makes Bold Lewis Hamilton Claim, Brushing Aside a List of Champions to Get to Fernando Alonso

Esteban Ocon is on a roll this year. The Alpine driver has impressed all season long with his consistent performances for the team. The French driver won the Hungarian GP last year and hasn’t looked back since. He is also high on confidence as he made a bold claim about himself.

The former Force India driver believes he is the best teammate of Fernando Alonso after Lewis Hamilton. In a rather controversial statement by the Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon claims to be better than some of the big names in F1 including Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, and Kimi Raikkonen.

Talking to Motorsport.com, Ocon said, “If I look at Fernando’s career, the only teammate who was at his level is Lewis, all the others did not do better than me. Personally, I feel that I am doing a good job, yes, it is a bit strange at times to see that on the outside there are those who perceive in a slightly different way.” [Translated using Google Translate]

Esteban Ocon is currently P8 in the Driver’s Championship, 7 points ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso. The Frenchman is 22 points behind the 7th-placed Lando Norris.

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Esteban Ocon faced a similar dilemma a few years ago to what Daniel Ricciardo is facing now. However, Ocon’s revival is further proof that taking a sabbatical from F1 doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Esteban Ocon expects more credit for his hard work

The Alpine driver has been mighty fast with his car this season. But despite the Frenchman’s impressive performances, Ocon does not believe he gets enough credit for it. Esteban has been an epitome of consistency this season, finishing outside points just five times all season.

Esteban said, “I don’t read everything that is declared about me, I hope that when I do something good it is reported as such, and that the observer can get an idea. But it is true that there are some people who say to me ‘ah, I didn’t notice your qualification at Spa’, or ‘I forgot you won last year’’.”

He further admitted that Fernando has out-qualified him in qualifying this season so far. However, he currently leads the 2 times World Champion by a small margin.

He concluded by stating, “Personally I feel that I am doing a good job, yes, it is a bit strange at times to see that on the outside there are those who perceive in a slightly different way.“

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Esteban Ocon will hope for a similar season again if not better. There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding which driver is going to pair with Ocon next season. However, the Frenchman will be looking to keep his head down and keep improving on his current good run.