Esteban Ocon Reveals How a Teacher Once Told Him To Quit His F1 Dream

It has never been easy to become an F1 driver. A racer must sacrifice a lot in order to achieve this dream. However, occasionally, while they work hard in their fields, they run against people who don’t share their idea of success. Considering that, the current Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon, has recently shared how a teacher once advised him to give up on his dream of becoming an F1 driver.

During his interview with the High Performance podcast when the host asked Esteban how many people doubted his parents’ decision to sell their house and buy a caravan to support Ocon’s dream, the #31 driver went into a state of shock. Before responding, Ocon commended the question and, with a broad smile, said that everyone thought this was a crazy decision.

While giving an example, Ocon said, “There was a teacher who one day at school basically said that Esteban you should probably stop [Chasing F1 dream]. You know because it’s like tennis a backhand and everything can be over.” 

Following this revelation, Ocon said that it’s really not nice to discourage somebody of that young age. Instead, according to the Alpine driver, it should be the other way around, with teachers inspiring the younger kids to follow their dreams.

Ocon, however, concluded the conversation by revealing that his parents chose to sell their house to move forward with their plans to purchase the caravan despite all the criticism.

How Esteban Ocon found his way into Formula 1

Ocon used to travel in a caravan with his parents after selling their home. While traveling in it, his parents shielded Ocon from any toxic stress by taking care of everything, including the caravan, and arranging things.

Ocon’s parents’ efforts thereby led him to concentrate only on his racing. Because of these huge sacrifices and efforts from his parent Ocon even won the F3 title back in 2014.

The 27-year-old performed admirably at the time, winning his championship on the penultimate race weekend in Imola. However, after winning that season, the Frenchman did not get a chance in F1. Instead, Max Verstappen was chosen to join the Red Bull camp.

This scenario disheartened the #31 driver and, given that his family wasn’t financially stable, he reached the extent of quitting his career. Nevertheless, Ocon did put in one last attempt to make it to Formula 1. He did this by reaching out to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff multiple times.

His efforts were rewarded as, in the end, he was accepted into the Mercedes development program. He then continued to be connected to the German racing team as a driver for Force India and Manor.