Source: Force India Media

F1 News

Mercedes won't release Ocon

Mercedes won't release Ocon

19-09-2018 10:25
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Bobby Vincent

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists that Esteban Ocon won't be released from their junior programme and he is adamant Ocon will prove other teams wrong for not signing him.

With silly season almost over now, Ocon looks the biggest loser of the season with the Frenchman still not having a seat in F1 next season, despite impressing for Force India this season.

Ocon looked nailed on to join Renault, but when Daniel Ricciardo became available - the French side snapped the Aussie up and the offer to Ocon was therefore rescinded. 

His Force India seat looks almost definitely gone with Lance Stroll the likely candidate following his father's takeover of the team.

However, the Mercedes boss still has confidence that Ocon's future is in F1 despite all the uncertainty and completely ruled out releasing Ocon from Mercedes' books.

"Not in a million years (will Ocon be released from Mercedes)," Wolff explained to Crash.net. "Because one day he is going to be in a Mercedes and win races and championships, and show all the others out there that they had a mistake.

"What's been going on this year in July and in August was just unbelieveable. There was so much politics in the background, hidden agendas, lies, and not all of the good kids are going to end up in cars. Probably Esteban will be one of them. But we'll look after him, he's one of the future stars, I'm 100 per cent sure of that.

"In July, he had two offers on the table with contracts, and it was just a matter of choosing which was the right one, and he ended up not having any anymore. We have to sort it out. Esteban is strong, he's been through different moments in his career. We'll fix this one as well."