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Esteban Ocon signs for Sahara Force India

November 10, 2016
Featured, News
Marijan Malcevic

  • Esteban Ocon, Sahara Force India F1 team
  • Esteban Ocon, Mercedes junior

Sahara Force India Formula One team announces today that Esteban Ocon would be the team’s second driver for 2017 season and beyond. The 20-year-old Fremchman signed a multi-year contract and joined the team as a replacement for Nico Hulkenberg, who are moving to Renault. Sergio Perez will stay Force India’s leading driver.

“I’m very excited to join Sahara Force India. I know the team quite well already because I was a test driver last year and I’m really looking forward to working with everybody at Silverstone once again. I’m still relatively new to Formula One, but spending half a season at Manor Racing has given me some valuable experience and I feel ready for this new opportunity with Sahara Force India. The next few months will be very busy as I do all I can to prepare for the challenge ahead of me. It means lots of days at the factory, working on the simulator and building relationships with the engineers and everybody in the team. It’s something I’ve been working towards my whole life and I intend to grab this opportunity with both hands so that I can deliver the results the team expects from me. I want to say ‘thank you’ to everybody at Manor and especially to Mercedes-Benz for their support and belief in me. I can’t wait for 2017 and my first full season racing in Formula One”, Esteban Ocon said.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome Esteban as our new race driver. He’s an exceptional talent, as his status as a Mercedes Junior demonstrates, and I have no doubt he will flourish inside our team. We’ve had our eye on Esteban for a number of years and have followed his progress through the junior categories where he delivered outstanding results. We ran him in the car last year during testing and his performance convinced us that he is more than capable of racing alongside Sergio. Sahara Force India has a tradition of investing in young, talented drivers and the arrival of Esteban will bring some fresh energy and motivation to everyone in the team”, says Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director.