How a handshake sealed Ocon's fate
Esteban Ocon went from two options to none in the space of a summer, but it was one handshake in a two-way battle that began what could become an F1 exile
That someone as quick as Esteban Ocon has been left with nowhere to go for 2019 is a travesty. And it has prompted a lot of reflection about the state of F1 - whether it be the struggles youngsters face in making the grid, or the growing influence of manufacturers and their driver-development programmes.
But dig a little deeper into the events of the summer and you quickly realise that how Ocon went from having two firm offers for 2019 to nothing in the space of a few weeks has little to do with the wider global picture of F1.
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Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
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