Ocon won't consider 2019 outside of F1

Esteban Ocon will not consider racing in any series other than Formula 1 in 2019, despite his chances of securing a race seat becoming increasingly thin. Although Williams have a vacancy the Frenchman could fill, he is likely to spend next season on the sidelines of F1.

Lawrence Stroll's takeover at Force India – and his son's likely switch from Williams – has left Ocon scrabbling for his short-term future in F1.

Mercedes remain confident that their junior driver will be back in 2020, but Ocon sees no reason to keep his form up in another category until then.

"There has been talks that I could race in many different places and I won't go in details," he said. "But we are choosing not to do that.

"If I don't race next year I will choose to stay close to Mercedes and try to learn as much as I can from them.

"Maybe do some testing here and there if possible, and work close to them. That is the only thing I can do to stay in shape, to stay around F1.

"I don't feel like I have experience to gain if I go somewhere, which I have already done before.

"To wait for an F1 seat I did DTM for example. Back in the days I learned a lot and I don't think that is the same nowadays with the experience I have got in F1. I don't plan to race somewhere else."

Nyck de Vries, Esteban Gutierrez and Robert Kubica have all been linked with Sergey Sirotkin's seat as well as Ocon, who is still waiting to see what the Grove squad decide.

"What I know is that it is not in my hands. It is not in my management's hands either," he said.

"It is for Williams to decide, basically. We will see how things evolve.

"There are at the moment two races to go, so I am trying to focus on that and after that we will see what happens."

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