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Esteban Ocon recently opened up on his long rivalry with Max Verstappen that started in karting, ran through junior formulas, and exploded into a full-blown feud in Formula 1. Reflecting on that history, the Haas driver acknowledged Verstappen’s rise, saying he thinks the Dutchman has earned his success and that their old clashes now sit behind them.
Those years carried a sharp contrast. Ocon and Verstappen grew up racing the same tracks. Verstappen’s rise to F1 in 2015 came swiftly, while Ocon was overlooked despite winning the 2014 Formula 3 European Championship. He had to prove himself again in GP3, where he won the title with ART, and then in junior programs without the financial security he needed.
The move was a tough pill to swallow for Ocon at the time because he’d just won the title and then faced funding problems. But today, he believes that Max’s style forced everyone around him to get better.
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"He's been an incredible driver, since the beginning that we started in karting. In fact, I think we all grew up together and he really had a way of driving that was very aggressive, always. Always within the limits of what was possible in the regulations and I think it's by beating him all these years, we all learned a lot of things by his side in karting," he said in an interview with Legend on YouTube (33:48 onwards).
Max Verstappen took the limelight before Esteban Ocon, and the latter struggled to come to terms with it as it unfolded.
The Frenchman eventually made his F1 debut in 2016 with the Manor Racing team at Belgium and has rebuilt a strong career since. Speaking about Verstappen’s results and career, he added:
"He deserves 100% everything that happens to him. And then I'm very happy for him that he also won his four titles. But it's true that at that time, it was very hard for me to tell myself that I had won the championship, that I wasn't going to F1, that I had to prove myself once again," he added (34:33 onwards).
Today, Esteban Ocon says they get along better than people expect.
The 2018 Brazilian clash between Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen: what happened and where it stands now
If the karting and junior battles were the beginning, the rivalry’s flashpoint came in F1 at Interlagos in 2018. Esteban Ocon tried to unlap himself on Lap 44 with softer tires, while Max Verstappen led. The two touched going into Turn 1, both spun, and the Dutchman lost the lead.
The incident cost Verstappen a potential victory. After the race, tempers boiled over as he confronted Ocon in the weighbridge. While the stewards punished Ocon with a 10-second penalty during the race, the Red Bull driver was reprimanded later by the FIA for his post-race behaviour with public-service hours for the altercation.
Both men defended their actions at the time. Ocon said he had team permission to unlap and was surprised by the aggression afterward. Verstappen maintained that a lapped car shouldn't be fighting the race leader and that he reacted in the heat of the moment. The incident left a mark with a very public rift between two drivers whose careers had been intertwined since childhood.
Fast forward to today: the headline fights are over, the penalties are long past, and both drivers have moved on. Esteban Ocon publicly recognizes Verstappen’s success and even credits racing him for improving his own game.
