2023 Formula 1 driver rankings #11: Esteban Ocon

12 comments on “2023 Formula 1 driver rankings #11: Esteban Ocon”

1. 

   William Harriss
   17th December 2023, 12:11

   Utterly ridiculous, alpines anonymity has made even journalists unable to recognise basic facts, ocon’s dominance over gasly especially over the first half of the year was obvious to anyone paying attention to the team and his awful luck
2. 

   F1 frog (@f1frog)
   17th December 2023, 12:15

   Personally, I think Esteban Ocon should be above Pierre Gasly. I think he had a lot more bad luck, particularly in races where the Alpine was strong. In Australia, he was taken out by Gasly. In Singapore and Austin, Gasly scored big points while Ocon retired with mechanical failures while ahead of him. Correcting for those points would put Ocon clearly above Gasly in the championship. In other races where the car was good, Ocon beat Gasly in the points in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Canada, Belgium and Qatar (and Japan and Mexico but I won’t count those as they were fortunate). Gasly beat Ocon in only Miami, Austria and Brazil, and only the last case was this really a case of superior speed throughout. Then Gasly had one big result this year in Zandvoort, where he made an inspired strategy call and then drove very well but we don’t know that Ocon couldn’t have got the same result with the same strategy. However, Ocon had two big results in Monaco and Las Vegas. In Monaco, he was simply faster than Gasly and put in that extraordinary qualifying lap and nice drive to finish third. In Las Vegas, he kept his tyres intact to finish fourth while Gasly tumbled down the order, although he did have battery problems this was more because his tyres were gone. In both cases, either Alpine driver could have scored the big result and it was Ocon who did it. Gasly also made one huge blunder by taking both cars out in Australia, while Ocon had no similar mistake.

   Of course, Gasly did just about have the edge for qualifying pace and generally was the better driver towards the end of the season so might have the upper hand next year, particularly as it was his first season with Alpine. But in 2023, I think the points table is misleading and Esteban Ocon was the better Alpine driver.
   1. 

      fred
      17th December 2023, 15:21

      We can’t forget about Zandvoort, that team split their strategies twice, and both times it worked out better for Gasly. On lap 1, both drivers wanted to stop, and only Pierre got that – which helped him to jump several drivers, finding himself in P4 battle. Later, when rain came again in the final 15 laps, they played it safe with Gasly – because he had a position to defend. With Ocon, they waited until it was time for Full Wet tyres, and just a moment after they put Wets, race was red flagged – making him no opportunity to regain lost time. He lost track position to Norris, Hamilton, and Piastri, while right before the rain he was closing down on Russell.

      But hey, that’s just the part of using split strategies in F1. Sometimes you win and look like genius, and sometimes you lose and look like an idiot. For most instances of such a split strategy, Ocon was losing – like in Australia, when all the gamble on lap 1 went down the drain because of Red Flag after Albon crashed, or mentioned Dutch Grand Prix. I think the only time he got a split strategy which gave him promises was in Monza, but it still ended up with mechanical DNF.

      Ocon definitely have to improve his quali performance, because he dropped it big time in the 2nd part of the season. His racepace and tyre management seems to be improving, but still he’s having terrible races like Mexico or Brazil – only to manage his tyres great in Vegas. It might’ve been setup related as well, as Alpine is not fighting anyone – they might tend to roll the dice more often. Sometimes it doesn’t work (Azerbaijan comes to mind, he managed to drive whole race on a single set of tyres and not destroy them), and sometimes it does. That’s F1 in midfield in a nutshell.

      I’d rate him above Gasly as well, because he seemed to have even bigger edge in racetrim than Alonso had over him – and lost with less points despite even more DNFs than Alonso had last year. There were instances when Ocon looked great, like Monaco, Belgium (which was completely unnoticed, despite him pulling sick moves on Tsunoda and Albon – twice!), Qatar, or Vegas – but there also were races when he was completely hopeless, like Austria, Mexico or Brazil.
   2. 

      bosyber (@bosyber)
      17th December 2023, 20:30

      Well argued @f1frog, I find myself agreeing with much of that, though in the end I’d also agree with Will Wood that they weren’t that far apart and also mainly limited in what the car and team could give them.
3. 

   melanos
   17th December 2023, 12:37

   Esteban Ocon can be fast and his Monaco performance was very solid. However I did not care to see him in the top ten. His attitude is nefarious, I rate Esteban in the top 3 most obnoxious drivers of all time.
   1. 

      pcxmac (@pcxmac)
      18th December 2023, 16:33

      hes not an entitled rich kid who had a comfortable upbringing. he knows how nasty f1 can be, and he tries to stay above it. sure hes probably not too comfortable around most people, but he earned his right, and hes doing it without being a nasty gossip. i think what you will find in motor racing, is that the peeps who have things handed to them are more entitled to treating their competition like trash, which is why oconn keeps his demeanor. ive seen the way commentators, and his own team members rub him the wrong way. and i love how he holds on to the class he earned.
4. 

   bull mello (@bullmello)
   17th December 2023, 18:03

   My guesses for:

   F1 2023
   Top 10 Drivers

   1- Verstappen

   2- Alonso
   3- Norris
   4- Hamilton
   5- LeClerc
   6- Sainz
   7- Russell
   8- Piastri
   9- Albon
   10- Gasly

   I have my own doubts on my list. Moved some of the drivers around, then moved them again.
   Surely others do have their own lists too…
   1. 

      melanos
      17th December 2023, 19:42

      I already posted my top 20 and I’m not doing it again, but from the votes for Best Driver of 2023 a few days ago, we can build a Racefans reader’s ranking (158 votes total). Only percentages are given, so we lose a bit of resolution.
      1: Max Verstappen 56% of the vote
      2: Fernando Alonso 15%
      3: Oscar Piastri 9%
      4: Lando Norris 8%
      5 Alex Albon 4%
      6: Tie with Charles Leclerc & Lewis Hamilton 3%
      8: Tie with Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda. Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg % Carlos Sainz 1%
      13:0% for Nick de Vries, Logan Sergeant, Dan Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyou, Valtteri Bottas., Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, George Russell & Sergio Perez

      Nobody seems to have voted for GR, who had a fairly decent season. I was also surprised by Oscar Piastri, who did a great rookie season but was hardly better than Lando Norris overall (probably the rookie factor gave him a few extra votes). And the brigade is very vocal here but it did not account for very much.
      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         17th December 2023, 23:12

         Nobody voted for russell cause he did NOT have a decent season, I’m sure many others will think that, he was destroyed by hamilton because of his costly mistakes like singapore or canada, much worse than last year, one would give him a pass last year cause it was his first season in merc, but not the 2nd year.
      2. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         17th December 2023, 23:12

         Russell himself was disappointed by his own season!
         1. 

            Fairy (@)
            17th December 2023, 23:38

            Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda. Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg got at least 1 vote, were they all better than George Russell? Not in my opinion, but then the everybody has one.
5. 

   Nick T.
   18th December 2023, 3:50

   Extremely over generous rating.

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