Mercedes wanted to see Ocon's qualifying ability

Esteban Ocon has said that Mercedes wanting to see his ability in qualifying helped him improve in that area throughout the season against Sergio Perez.

Ocon raced for Force India (now Racing Point) this season and last but lost to Perez in qualifying 7-13 in 2017.

He improved this year out leading 15-5 against the Mexican but was side-lined by the team, favouring Perez over the Frenchman for 2019. The Mercedes Junior driver has been made Mercedes’ reserve and test driver for 2019, hoping for a seat in 2020.

"It is my target to win the championship, and we will see how the future evolves, but I guess Mercedes wanted to see that their driver could perform well in qualifying," he said (motorsport.com).

"In any kind of racing it's important to start ahead, when we have aero like this it's very hard to pass. It's a big help and I'm pretty happy with my improvement.”

"I think qualifying I have improved the most, how to build up the weekend.”

"That's where I've been the strongest this year, I've qualified sixth, seventh, eighth many times this season. I think that's good, and I'm pretty pleased with that."

The Frenchman said of the need to hit the targets Mercedes have set him throughout his time in F1 and the improvement since.

"I find it more than tiny, how I've improved in qualifying. The race pace, I had a pretty solid base from the beginning when I was racing in F1, but I've learned in F1 if you don't start where the car deserves to be it's difficult to catch back in the races.”

"I can also compare to my team-mate. I think he's pretty experienced, he's also improving over the years but less than a rookie.”

"Compared to him I think I'm a lot stronger than last year."