Abiteboul: “Mercedes will have absolutely no rights” over Ocon

This is undoubtedly the news of this school year Formula 1 François Bard's pictorial epiphany he signing of Esteban Ocon at Renault for two years from 2020. The Frenchman was the subject of numerous questions during the team directors' press conference at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Friday August 30.

Bombarded by journalists, Cyril Abiteboul wanted to provide an important clarification concerning the links between the former Force India driver and Mercedes. “He is a pilot Renault, it's very clear. Mercedes will have absolutely no rights over him during the duration of the contract. 

The small difference is that his management company happens to be a team, and it is Mercedes, but in a slightly different organization than what we had set up for Carlos. (Sainz Jr.) in 2018. (At that time. Ed.), he was on loan and not under contract Red Bull » explains the main team. 

Esteban Ocon is spending the 2019 season in the Mercedes simulator in Great Britain, as a reserve driver. The multiple world champion team has confirmed that the tricolor will continue its work until the end of the year:

Yep, Esteban will continue his work as normal with us on the simulator this year, before joining the yellow team in 2020.

- Mercedes-AMG F1 (@ MercedesAMGF1) August 29

For Cyril Abiteboul, the signing of Esteban Ocon comes one year after the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo. At the time, the Australian had involuntarily blocked the way for his future colleague… 

The Renault boss looks back on this stressful episode. “ (Ocon at Renault), this had been discussed at a certain level of detail, he continues. We also had the opportunity to hire Daniel, it was also a big opportunity. 

When this opportunity became bigger for us, we had to make a decision very quickly. This doesn’t happen every day for a stable under construction. But frankly, I'm very happy thatEsteban, Renault, Mercedes, Toto (Wolff, boss of Mercedes) and I managed to put it all behind us and decide what was the best option for everyone this time. »

A speech that will not make a certain person smile Nico Hülkenberg, fired after three seasons among the Jaunes-et-Noirs and significant efforts made to build the team…