Ocon starts his F1 return at Renault
New Renault Formula 1 signing Esteban Ocon got the day he had been waiting “months” for when he drove the team’s 2019 car in the post-season
Abu Dhabi test last week, an outing he called
“crucial” ahead of his racing return.
Ocon, who replaces Nico Hulkenberg alongside Daniel Ricciardo in Renault’s line-up for next season, got behind the wheel for the first time on Tuesday. Although he has tested Mercedes’ 2019 car this year in his role as reserve driver, Ocon’s on-track opportunities have been limited. F1 has cut its pre-season test days from eight to six for 2020, further reducing Ocon’s track time as he returns to the grid after one year on the sidelines.
Ocon’s mileage on the first day of the test – topped by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas – was limited to 77 laps by a problem with the seat, and he noted that the position was different compared to Mercedes.
“It’s a fantastic feeling, to be back,” said Ocon. “I was so excited. I’ve been waiting for that day for months and finally it happened. It’s crucial [to be in the car] and definitely it’s going to help me massively. Because you arrive to testing in February with an advantage, you have your position [in the car] fixed, you have things that you verified on track. I didn’t get much driving time this year, and to have even fewer days in February, it’s a big problem. So to have these two days here it’s basically a counter for the days we are lacking in February.”
Ocon, who served as Renault’s F1 reserve in 2016 before driving for Manor and then Force India/racing Point, ended Tuesday’s opening test day in eighth place, 2.838s off the pace. He completed a further 128 laps on Wednesday, when he was sixth, 1.746s off the pace.
The testing pace was set by Mercedes driver Bottas, who lapped slightly faster than Williams race driver George Russell could manage when he took over the Mercedes for the second day of the test.
Russell, who has been a Mercedes protege for several years, lapped a tenth slower than Bottas’s Tuesday benchmark, but Mercedes had insisted beforehand that Russell’s latest test was not a direct comparison with Bottas, who is out of contract after 2020.
Russell’s time, more than three seconds quicker than he had lapped on Tuesday in his 2019 Williams, was eight hundredths slower than the lap of Bottas.
Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari on a disrupted outing for the Italian team. Leclerc went backwards into the wall at Turn 14, after the chicane that follows the second back straight. The late-afternoon incident caused a red flag and was more costly than team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s contact-induced spin on the first day of the test, as Leclerc did not take to the track again. On Tuesday, Vettel had also lost an hour of running in the morning with an exhaust issue.
Among the less-familiar drivers in action was sometime Formula 2 racer Roy Nissany, making his F1 debut. The Israeli, expect to be named Williams development driver next season, was 7.6s slower than Bottas on day one and 3.1s slower than the next slowest car (Sean Gelael’s Toro Rosso). Nissany returned for another half-day on Wednesday, completing just 38 laps and lapping 6.6s off the pace.