F1 News: Esteban Ocon issues scathing review over his 'disappointing' career

Esteban Ocon, Haas, Imola, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Esteban Ocon issues scathing review over his 'disappointing' F1 career

Esteban Ocon has one grand prix victory to his name

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 6 April 2026 09:12

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F1 star Esteban Ocon has described his F1 career to date as 'disappointing'.

French driver Ocon has been in the series since the 2016 season, barring a year away in 2019, and has just a singular grand prix victory to his name.

That win came at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix when he was driving for Alpine, but that team is arguably the biggest F1 outfit that he has driven for.

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He was a candidate for a seat at Mercedes for the 2017 season, and again after Valtteri Bottas left in 2021, but never made that step up, and has regularly found himself in midfield battles.

Overall he has four career podiums, with his most recent one coming at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.

At the end of that year, Ocon made the switch to Haas, where he was defeated by rookie team-mate Oliver Bearman in his first season at the team, with Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu saying 'nobody was satisfied' by his driver performance.

Now, Ocon has launched a scathing assessment of his own F1 career, claiming that his podium and race victory numbers are not what he would expect.

"I think it’s fair to say that I’m happy with what I’ve achieved in terms of podiums and wins, and I’m proud of those, but I haven’t achieved enough in F1," he told media at the Australian Grand Prix.

"I’ve won in every category that I’ve driven in the past, apart from DTM maybe, with my half a year, but from karting to single seater, I’ve won everywhere.

"And yes, I’ve won one race in F1, but it’s not enough. Out of 180 races, to my standard, it’s disappointing so far.

"So, I hope that this will change in the near future, but I will work hard for that to change."

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Will Ocon remain in F1 after 2026?

After his dismal season compared to Bearman last year, Ocon has once again been outperformed by the young Brit across the first three grand prix weekends of this season.

He has, however, managed to get a point on the board for Haas, finishing 10th at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Ocon is due to be out of contract at the end of 2026, and he needs to prove to Komatsu that he can be a regular points scorer for the team if he has any chance of having his contract renewed.

Beating Bearman would help, but the 20-year-old has been in such fine form that this may be a tall order.

If Ocon is not handed a contract extension by Haas for the 2027 season, then there is a case to suggest that he will fall off the F1 grid entirely, with Alpine having let him go from his contract early just two years ago too.

The 29-year-old is running out of midfield teams to take a chance on if he ever wants to get back to grand prix-winning ways.

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F1 Alpine Haas Esteban Ocon