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Esteban Ocon sheds light on his infamous ‘FIREY’ karting tussle with F1 rival Max Verstappen

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Rishabh Negi | Last updated 4/17/24

Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen have a well-known reputation in F1 for not being the best of friends. They have had their fair share of on-track as well as off-track tussles and amidst all the ups and downs, Ocon has recently taken the time to dwell on his rivalry with the Dutchman.

The duo’s rivalry goes way back as they first locked horns in the karting circuit. In 2014, Ocon and Verstappen were fighting for the 2014 F3 European Championship, and the former was just able to come out on top.

Esteban Ocon feels that during that time his rivalry with Verstappen was extremely heated!

[Max’s] dad had the experience because he raced in go-karts so they had a little bit of an advantage on that side. But my dad and his dad, at the time, they were doing a little bit of a similar thing, so really hats off to them as well for what they’ve done. It was, to be fair – it was very fiery. Esteban Ocon said on the High Performance podcast

While the Frenchman was able to triumph in the 2014 F3 European Championship, it was Verstappen who made it to F1 first. The Dutchman joined Red Bull’s junior team VCARB (Toro Rosso) in 2015 and the following year, got promoted! Ocon, on the other hand, made his debut in 2016 with Manor Racing.

Esteban Ocon will get an ‘upgraded’ A524 for the Chinese GP

While Esteban Ocon has reminisced about his karting days with Max Verstappen, he has some immediate pressing issues to deal with during the ongoing campaign. Alpine’s A524 is currently the worst car on the 2024 F1 grid.

However, despite this, the 27-year-old has been able to put into Q2 on a few occasions. Because of this reason, the Alpine boss, Bruno Famin has decided to bring an upgrade on Ocon’s car for the Chinese GP.

While it was good to bring the first updates to the car in Suzuka, we must do more. The team has been working extremely hard and we have been able to bring an upgrade to one car this weekend, one race earlier than planned. Bruno Famin said in an interview with Crash.net

Esteban and Pierre Gasly‘s contracts with the Enstone-based team are coming to a close at the end of this year. They are active in the driver market and some people have even deemed the former as a suitable choice for Mercedes for the 2025 season. It has mostly been because of the consistency Ocon has shown this year.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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