Esteban Ocon has joined Force India on a three year deal, although he is likley to have an option to leave the team if a drive becomes available with the Mercedes AMG Petronas factory team. The deal is not a great surprise as the young Frenchman is just the kind of driver that Force India was looking for and this obvioulsy outweighed the value of the money others were offering. The news comes shortly after the confirmation of Jolyon Palmer for one more year with Renault and it is anticipated that Kevin magnussen will be named as the second Haas driver at some point in the not too distant future. This means that the only remaining drives for 2017 are the second Sauber, which is likely to go to Rio Haryanto, and the two Manor drives, one of which will probably go to Pascal Wehrlein and the other to Felipe Nasr, as there are no other choices available for the Brazilian, unless he stays at Sauber – and neither party seem to be evry interested in that idea. Nasr will be trying hard to get the Williams drive in 2018 when Valtteri Bottas is expected to jump to Renault. Palmer will then need to figure out his future beyond that.
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joeblogsf1 
How safe is the future of the Manor team now Joe? They seem to be attracting more serious candidates as drivers than ever before (Timo Glock excepted), but is that an indicator that the team’s future is strengthening, or just a reflection of the current driver market circumstances? What prospect is there that they can decouple from their position at the back of the grid and really start to progress? Seems it’s only Sauber’s annus horibilis which has allowed Manor to edge forwards this year.
They need to improve but that depends on money
Hi Joe,
I was surprised to hear that they preferred Ocon over Werlein.
Any idea what the reason was and what does this mean for the future of Pascal?
Hi Joe,
what’s the reason for Merc leaving Wehrlein where he is and moving Ocon on? Wehrlein must be a bit miffed that he has to spend another year at the back while Ocon has a crack in a good-ish car.
See other replies to same question
Wehrlein seems to be the odd man out. Surpassed in upward mobility by fellow Mercedes protege Ocon and passed over as a choice by Force India, Haas and Renault, his only option seems to stick with lowly Manor and wait.
What happened? He was being touted as ‘the next big thing’ not too long ago.
He wasn’t ready
Good piece with loads of insight. I have been struggling to unravel this years driver market mid-grid. Has Ocon been given to merc by renault in exchange for hulkenberg? Why does Nasr seem so desirable to teams? Has Wehrlein been leapfrogged by Ocon? Does Bottas actually not want to be at williams? Is Guttierez actually a bit crap?
Answers in order: no. Bernie. Yes. Yes. Arguable.
If common sense were to prevail, Alonso would come home to Renault and lead that team back to winning ways. Nasr could then partner Vandoorne at McHonda, as he is far too good for Manor. J Allison would decide to move his home to Italy and patch things up with the Scuderia. Lastly F1 would return to free to air live broadcasting, and cap weekend passes at all circuits on the calendar to £50.
Pipe dreams, I know.
Is that before of after Jean Todt becomes Pope?
You have to pay to bring a cap into an F1 track now? Suppose it was inevitable.
Assume that Ocon comes with a subsidy for lower price Mercedes-Benz engines. So how does he rate in comparison to Wehrlein, KMag, and Palmer?
For FI obviously higher
Sounds like good news for Ocon – and bad news for Wehrlein!
Both are well known to Mercedes and both have tested for Force India in the past. So is this an indication that Ocon is higher rated than Wehrlein by both teams?
On another note, Ocon is one of the tallest driver in the field, replacing the Hulk, who isn’t small either. Coincidence?
The height is not an issue
Bit of a kicker for Wehrlein who’s had more race seat time. Joe what do you think of his prospects now?
Less good than before
Bottas to Renault in 2018? Now that’s a long, long distance prediction, isn’t it Joe?
No, they tried to make it happen this year
Interesting Mercedes chose to leave Wehrlein at Manor and move Ocon to Force India… what do you think that says about the relative perception of each in terms of their long-term progression?
Ocon is rated higher
Assuming for a minute that both were available, do you have any idea why FI might have gone for Ocon as opposed to the (slightly) more experienced Wehrlein, Joe?
Attitude
I see the word attitude coming up more than once… but isn’t speed more important than attitude? Max’s attitude isn’t the nicest in the paddock, but I think every team principal would have him if they had the chance. So why is attitude so important in this case, when speed is usually more important?
I don’t think they care too much about attitude towards the media and whether or not he defers to the senior drivers . They care more about how the driver applies himself, how he works with the engineers, how he would take on sponsor duties, and how hard he pushes in the car.
Force India tested both the Manor drivers. They will have some idea of how the two score in those various areas.
I’m a bit surprised Ocon was prefered. What was wrong with Werhlein, who has a bit more experience?
See other comment replirs
Seems Rio has found additional funding then… (and the Nasr backing group in Brazil has changed management/strategy?)
Yes and no
Seems out of all of this , people don’t rate Pascal Wehrlein. Is that right?
It is not about talent. It is about attitude
Could you be more specific about attitude? Is it cooperation skills or is he to relaxed about is job or something else?
Could you expand on that please?
Expand on what. I am not following each thread.
/Expand on what/
Everyone’s curious about your ‘attitude’ message 🙂
There is nothing more than I can add
Oh Joe there is…you’re just not telling us.
Sometimes these things happen
Bad news for Wehrlien?
Manor?
Joe: Does being a Mercedes or Ferrari “up and coming protege” carry cash or engine deal for one of the “third level” teams, or do the drivers have to pony up sponsorship $$. Any idea what the actual cost is for one of the drives?
They have different approaches. Ferrari young drivers have generally paid. Mercedes drivers have not. Mercedes do deals over engine costs. It is probably worth $5 to $10 million in engine bill reduction
What has happened to Pascal’s career? He looked like he might be destined for great things at the beginning of the year and now it looks like he will be happy if he manages to keep his seat.
Good question
I think what happened was he didn’t destroy Harayanto
That’s a long contract for Ocon if he’s being lined up for a seat at Mercedes. Hamilton and Rosberg look to be staying for another couple of years, unless Mercedes have other driver options.
Is it likely the FI/Ocon contract involves a reduction in the cost of the Mercedes engines they are using?
Yes
Hi Joe – Probably the wrong thread for this, but wanted to say that I finally got around to listening to your sidepodcasts from this year, and they were really great! Not to turn this into a commercial, but between this blog, the podcasts and finally subscribing to GP+ this season I’m better informed about the intricacies of the sport than ever before. This has been a more than welcome distraction from politics here in the U.S.!
What’s magnussen’s end game? Isn’t a works Renault drive a better option?
Not sure it was his choice
He claims it was. He just didn’t want to be left hanging. I suppose after the Mclaren delay he was wary of delays.
According to Kevin in Danish media, he turned down their one-year offer, because he felt they only needed an interim driver to be replaced in 2018, and that they were already in talks with drivers for that 2018 seat.
He didn’t want to be part of another year with a team that doesn’t really believe in him.
This was his own words, but as Joe mention there may be more to it than that. We’ll probably never know.
I don’t think Renault treated any of their drivers very well, so I understand Kevin’s decision to act accordingly.
However, I also agree that it is a step down although next season may offer some surprises.
That’s about right.
What about Esteban Gutierrez? Will he land anywhere?
Manor, probably
Wehrlein proved himself in DTM and drove for HWA, yet Ocon got the nod. I’m a little surprised by that. Has Pascal upset Toto?
Interesting that Ocon got the “better” of the two available Merc-related drives instead of Wehrlein.
Either way, Merc would indeed be quite happy with this. Having their own contracted drivers in two other Teams should make life even easier if/when the main Team is needing Force India or Manor cars to move out of the way.
Joe : Couple of questions if I may :
Would it have been a Mercedes decision to move Ocon ? Or would they have had no part in that decision/move ?
Does Bottas still have Toto as part of his management team ? If so, then Merc/Wolff have scored the full house with engines and driver in every Team that they are affiliated with !
Great point about the Merc influence at all their customers. I wonder what that will equate to, given they already ‘lost’ the 2017 vote about rule changes – I mean more aero influence.
Rio Haryanto at Sauber makes sense but I think Nasr will face competition from Gutiérrez for that Manor seat
Hi Joe
Any idea if it was force India decision or Mercedes decision to choose Ocon over Wherlin ??
What do you make of the decision to promote Ocon over Wehrlein?
I hear Wehrlien is hard to work with, there are stories from his DTM stint which are not flattering for him.
Curtains I reckon Formula E beckons…. ..
Ocon was a very miserable sod in F3 and bitched and moaned the whole season, frequently blaming his errors on others. The most unpopular driver on the grid as it happens. At the moment his disposition is sunny but let’s see if that cracks under pressure. From a results perspective, Wehrlein is the better driver of the two and it appears that the decision to select Ocon was down to Force India; both drivers, apparently, were offered to them by Mercedes.
I guess that different people see different things, or maybe they want to see different things. I don’t know. Yoh can only judge by what you know. As far as I am concerned he is all sunlight and a really good guy, so there is clearly a difference of opinion here.
a bit off track on Renault drivers – MAG behaves like ”i’m the superstar and the rest is others problem” whereas PAL seem to be hard worker, he was hanging on the hair mid season, but figured it out and put it together and now is beating MAG plain and square and getting there, while MAG still thinks he’s the superstar and the rest is others problem, like sort of cocky hammerhead so to speak
Good to see that positivity runs through your veins
another off track – i never thought i will gonna like Max, but You know i find myself liking him more and more not only on track but off track as well. . . weird – all three my favorite Racers of this day are in the same team – Daniel, Carlos and now Max Emilian too, huh
I’ve been saying Wehrlein was overrated since long (people scoffed) and Dieter’s loud trumpeting from the hill tops would only keep him propped so long. He is essentially matched by Indonesian pay-driver RH and then Ocon with virtually no seat time in the Manor starts showing up Wehrlein. That’s enough data to shut up Dieter. Don’t get me wrong, Pascal might be good. He wouldn’t be the only worthy talent who rises to the occasion with better equipment.