Esteban Ocon

Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane (born 17 September 1996) is a French racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alpine.

Ocon entered karting in 2006, when he finished eighth in the Minime class of the French Championship.

He won the championship in 2007 and continued his success by winning the Cadet class in 2008 ahead of Anthoine Hubert and Pierre Gasly.

He then spent three years racing in the KF3 category and competed in the Spanish Championship and Italian Open Masters.

He won the French KF3 title in 2010 and finished as runner-up in the WSK Euro Series in 2011 behind Max Verstappen.

At the age of 14, Ocon was signed by Gravity Sports management, a sister company of Renault F1 team.

In 2012, Ocon made his debut in single-seaters, taking part in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with Koiranen Motorsport.

He finished fourteenth with four point-scoring finishes, including being on the podium at his home round at Circuit Paul Ricard.

He also contested a partial campaign in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps with Koiranen, finishing seventh with two podiums, both of which came at the Red Bull Ring.

He remained in the series for 2013, switching to the ART Junior Team.

He recorded one pole position and won two races including at Circuit Paul Ricard, finishing the season in third place behind Pierre Gasly and Oliver Rowland.

A partial campaign in the Northern European Cup produced a race win at the Hockenheimring and two further podiums.

Ocon made his debut in Formula Three machinery at the 2013 Macau Grand Prix with Prema Powerteam.

He stalled at the start of the main race but went on to finish tenth.

Ocon experienced a successful junior career as he won the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship and the 2015 GP3 Series despite only winning one race in the latter campaign, which earned him a place at the Mercedes driver development programme, for whom he worked as a reserve driver.

He continued his collaboration with Prema into the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

He topped the standings at the first round at Silverstone Circuit and remained in the lead of the championship for the rest of the season.

With two rounds to spare, he made a brief appearance in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Comtec Racing.

Ocon was crowned FIA Formula 3 European champion with three races remaining, ahead of Tom Blomqvist and Max Verstappen.

He finished on the podium in twenty-one of the thirty-three races, winning nine, and recorded fifteen pole positions.

Ocon made a second appearance at the Macau Grand Prix in 2014.

He qualified fourth for the main race but was eliminated by a multi-car collision on the first lap.

Ocon moved to the GP3 Series for 2015 with ART Grand Prix.

Despite only scoring one race victory (two other victories were denied due to penalties), he won the championship by eight points ahead of Luca Ghiotto.

Ocon recorded three pole positions and fourteen podium finishes (including nine consecutive second-places) from eighteen races.

After winning the GP3 title, Ocon made his Formula One debut for Manor Racing in the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, replacing Rio Haryanto.

Ocon drove for Mercedes-Benz in the first ten races of the 2016 DTM season, alongside his Formula One reserve driver role at Renault.

He scored two points finishing ninth in the first race at Circuit Zandvoort, before he was promoted to a Formula 1 race seat.

He was replaced by Felix Rosenqvist following his promotion.

He moved to Force India/Racing Point in 2017, partnering Mexican driver Sergio Pérez for the 2017 and 2018 Formula 1 seasons.

Ocon left Racing Point at the end of 2018, and became a reserve driver for Mercedes in 2019 until his move to Renault for 2020.

He took his maiden Formula One podium at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix and maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Despite not winning a race or taking a podium in 2022, he secured his best position in the drivers' standings in eighth with 92 points, 11 points clear of teammate Fernando Alonso, helping to secure fourth in the Constructors' Championship for Alpine.

Ocon scored his third podium at the Monaco Grand Prix the following year, though he finished the season in twelfth in the drivers' standings, scoring 58 points.

Esteban Ocon was born in Évreux, Normandy to Sabrina Khelfane and Laurent Ocon, a mechanic who owns a garage in Évreux.

His paternal family is originally from Málaga.

While competing in karting, his parents had to sell their family home, which included his father's garage, to fund his karting career.

After selling the house, they lived and travelled to races in a caravan Ocon also used as a motor home.

, Ocon lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

Besides his native French language, Ocon also speaks English, Spanish and Italian.