Esteban Ocon Marks Ten Years After His F1 Debut at the Same Belgian Grand Prix Where It Began

• Esteban Ocon is celebrating a decade in Formula 1, a milestone that falls at the same Belgian Grand Prix where he made his debut in 2016.
• The Haas driver says he feels like a “very different driver” now, though he insists his motivation has not changed from the days he raced alongside Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen as a rookie.
• Haas will introduce new upgrades at Spa this weekend as the team looks to end a run without a top ten finish that stretches back to Monaco.

Esteban Ocon arrives at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix exactly ten years after the race that started his Formula 1 career. The Frenchman made his debut at Spa-Francorchamps in 2016 for Manor Racing, finishing sixteenth while teammate Pascal Wehrlein retired.

“Crazy to think it’s been 10 years. Time flies, really,” Ocon said. “I don’t feel like I’ve been in Formula 1 for 10 years, feels like I’ve been here for a couple of years, not more. So yeah, I’m excited about this weekend.”

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Racing Against His Own Heroes

Ocon’s rookie weekend at Spa put him on track against drivers he had grown up watching on television. “It was my debut, there was a lot to learn. I was racing with the faces I was watching on TV, you know, Fernando, Jenson, Kimi Raikkonen, all these guys. It was quite special. I did a good job because I’m here 10 years later, so it’s okay.”

In the ten years that followed, Ocon has driven for Force India, Alpine and now Haas, taking a maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and podium finishes in Sakhir, Monaco and Sao Paulo. Manor itself never saw another season, entering administration that winter and closing for good in March 2017 before a buyer could be found, so the team Ocon debuted for no longer existed by the time his second F1 season began.

The Lesson That Has Stuck

Asked what he had learned across ten seasons, Ocon pointed to a constant that has carried through every change of team and car. “Of course I’m a very different driver than I was back then, but the motivation is still the same. The motivation is still to take the car that you have in your hands as far as it can go, as high as it can go, and I’m still motivated as much as I can be behind the wheel.”

A Tougher Present With Haas

The anniversary falls in a difficult run of form for Haas. The team started the season well when Ollie Bearman scored points in Australia and Japan, then fell behind midfield rivals such as Racing Bulls and Alpine. Haas has not finished a race in the top ten from round six in Monaco onward.

“It’s been a tough couple of races as a team,” Ocon said. “Of course, we are chasing a bit of performance at the moment. We do have a little bit of new stuff coming this weekend as well. We need to find more performance.”

He pointed to Silverstone as evidence the car still has something to offer when everything comes together. “I think we extracted the maximum out of the car in Silverstone, which was quite positive, but it was not quite enough. After the start, from even quite far back in the order, I went up to P11 and we could not hold the pace of the other midfield cars. This is what we need to work on. We know that and we’re all focused on doing that hopefully here, or later when more parts come on the car.”

Ocon said he remains confident the team can turn its form around. “I’ve got trust in the team that we hopefully will not stay in that position and we will improve. We are doing a good job inside the team at the moment. There is no hiding.”

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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