Esteban Ocon does not yet have a contract for the 2027 Formula 1 season, but following his strong race in Baku, the Haas driver has made a confident statement
Esteban Ocon certainly doesn’t lack self-confidence. “I’m one of the best drivers out there,” he says after finishing eighth in the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “And I’m not afraid to say so.”
It was only his third points-scoring finish of the season, following 10th place in Japan and 9th place in Monaco. Ahead of his Haas team-mate Oliver Bearman (who finished P9 in Baku), who still has a clear lead in the Drivers’ Championship with 20 points to 7. Nevertheless, Saturday’s race was a breath of fresh air for Ocon: “I think we deserved it.”
Yet his future prospects in Formula 1 look bleak. Before Baku, Ocon himself had confirmed that he would be a “free agent” for 2027 – in football terms, a player without a contract who is free to look for a new club. And even though Haas has not yet decided who will be Bearman’s team-mate next year, Ocon’s chances of securing the seat are slim.
What he cannot understand is: “I’ve raced against all these lads before, and I’ve always been on a par with them. I’ve won every championship I’ve competed in. I’ve won races in Formula Renault and titles in karting. I’ve won Formula 3 and GP3. I spent half a season in the DTM in the top 10. I’ve won a Grand Prix. I can do it.”
In Formula 3 in 2014: he even beat Max Verstappen!
The sting of having once beaten some of the rivals who are now racing around him in Formula 1 clearly runs deep. In 2014, Ocon became Formula 3 champion, scoring 478 points to 411 against a certain Max Verstappen, who finished third in the championship that year. Other (defeated) rivals included Lucas Auer, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi.
However, the argument of having won junior titles is one shared by many other drivers, some of whom are younger than Ocon. Of the last nine Formula 2 champions, only four are still racing in Formula 1 today (Leclerc, Russell, Piastri, Bortoleto). Nyck de Vries and Mick Schumacher have already been dropped. Drugovich, Pourchaire and Fornaroli never got a chance.
Jacques Villeneuve questions why Ocon used to be a Mercedes junior driver, yet Mercedes did not want him for Formula 1. “Then they sent him off to Alpine/Renault. And now he’s slipped down the ladder to Haas. After Haas, it’s out of Formula 1. There aren’t enough seats for the young drivers pushing through. There’s no room left for a driver like Esteban. Yes, he has plenty of experience. But how good were his last two seasons? He didn’t exactly shine,” says the Sky expert.
Yet Ocon continues to show flashes of brilliance. On Saturday in Baku, during the restart – a few metres after the Colapinto crash – he overtook his team-mate with a flawless manoeuvre at Turn 2. “I know what I’m capable of when I’ve got a car that performs,” he says. “I can take on anyone. I deserve to be in Formula 1.”
Ocon also overtook Liam Lawson in the Racing Bull in one of his better races this year, and later pulled Bearman into his slipstream. “We worked as a team,” he says magnanimously. “After that, it was difficult to move any further up the field. The faster cars simply pulled away.”
Lost 7th place to Lindblad on the final lap
The only fly in the ointment is that the 30-year-old was overtaken by Arvid Lindblad in the final metres in Baku. Valtteri Bottas had crashed his Cadillac into the barrier at Turn 15, and Ocon cut the corner on the inside under yellow flags, “because I didn’t know whether Valtteri might be standing in the middle of the corner”. Strictly speaking, that was the safer option.
“Then I thought to myself that I didn’t want to end up in front of the stewards, because they’d accuse me of perhaps gaining an advantage that way. So I lifted off briefly and thought it would still be enough.” That was at Turn 17 and again before Turn 18, and suddenly Lindblad was close enough again for Ocon to be overtaken just before the finish line.
Nevertheless: “I’m absolutely delighted with the result. When the car is working, that’s exactly where we belong. We had a strong car all weekend, made the right decisions – with the pit stop, during the safety car period. A really good race […]. That gives us positive vibes for the next two races in this triple-header,” he says.
Sometime after the race in Baku, he was asked in an interview whether he’d like to send a message to his team principal, Ayao Komatsu, suggesting that he might still be able to make a valuable contribution to Haas. Ocon’s only reply was: “No comment.”