“I See Myself Fighting With Verstappen”: Despite Trailing Max by Massive 166 Points, Esteban Ocon Issues a Bold Statement Based on a Crucial Condition

Esteban Ocon scored a magnificent podium in Monaco to impress everyone and showcase his skills. The Frenchman was once a Mercedes target, but the move never materialized. Now Esteban Ocon has come out with a burning hot statement that points toward a crucial condition. The Alpine driver trails Max Verstappen by 166 points in the championship, yet made this bold statement. What did Esteban Ocon say?

Max Verstappen over the last two seasons has shown why he was so highly praised as an extraordinary F1 talent. Beating Lewis Hamilton is no easy feat, but Verstappen showed that it is possible in Red Bull, but not as fast as the Mercedes. Esteban Ocon on the other hand, has never gotten a chance to move to a big team. But the Frenchman has shown signs of pace. Nevertheless, Ocon’s pace isn’t on the same level as the current dominant Verstappen. 

There is a 166 points gap between Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon this season. While we agree that Ocon never had a competitive car underneath him, we’ve never seen the Alpine driver outperform his car throughout the season. However, Esteban Ocon has now come out to make a bold statement. The Frenchman believes that he can compete with Max Verstappen for a world championship if the two had equal cars. According to @F1__esp, their tweet suggested that Esteban Ocon on DAZN microphone said, “I see myself fighting with Verstappen fighting for a World Cup if we had the same car.” [Translated via Google]

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Ocon has shown glimpses of extraordinary performance like the win at Hungaroring and the Podium in Monaco this year under treacherous conditions. But these are one-off performances and to beat Verstappen, he’ll need to be consistent up there. Despite the tricky Canadian GP, Verstappen came out on top. 

Max Verstappen on the Canadian GP being a tricky weekend

The track temperature at the Canadian GP weekend was quite low. That, coupled with the fact that the layout of the circuit doesn’t offer many areas to warm the tires, means the Red Bull struggled with tire temperature. Despite the Pirelli team bringing the softest rubber compounds, the tires just never seemed to work and needed multiple warm-up laps to get them somewhat in the working window. The same problems and struggles were explained by Max Verstappen.

According to Sky Sports.com, Max Verstappen said, “Today was tricky because of the cold temperatures. We couldn’t get the tires to work, they were always too cold. We know the strength of the car is the tire deg, so the cars that are a bit heavier on the tires probably worked a bit better for them today.”

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What do you make of Esteban Ocon’s bold statement? Do you think he can beat Max Verstappen in an equal car?