"I would not have the b**ls to do something like that": Esteban Ocon opens up on 'hooligan' Haas teammate Ollie Bearman

Esteban Ocon feels Ollie Bearman is quite similar to him when it comes to his passion for racing, but being younger means he does end up being a bit of a hooligan. The French driver has shifted bases this season from Alpine to Haas, where he is teammates with the British rookie.

The two have so far had a brilliant relationship where they have rubbed off on each other on track and off it. For Esteban Ocon as well, this is a novelty of sorts because the French driver has been a bit notorious when it comes to being a teammate in F1.

He's had a rough ride with Sergio Perez when he was at Force India, his relationship with Fernando Alonso was a bit rocky at Alpine, and his last teammate was Pierre Gasly, with whom he does have a past.

At Haas, however, there's a bit more of a change in dynamics because Esteban Ocon is the veteran teammate at the team compared to Ollie Bearman. Talking to Motorsport, the former Mercedes junior had nothing but praise for his teammate as he recounted how Ollie can be a bit of a hooligan, as he is still very young. Talking about the incident at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ocon said,

"We have a little bit of the same passion. Except that he's a hooligan! Because he's young, so he's experiencing. For example, at Goodwood, we had this challenge of who's going to bring back the biggest slick tyre after the run. He just figured out some ways of overthinking the computer on the gearbox and everything. He got his rear wheels up to seventh gear while he was doing 30km/h."

He added,

"I would not have had the balls to do something like that! Even if you're doing 30, if your rear wheels are doing 280, the car can do some weird stuff. It was quite funny to see all that!"

Esteban Ocon touches on how the dynamics with Ollie Bearman didn't change even after the Silverstone collision

It is safe to say, however, that the dynamics between Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman were first put to the test at Silverstone, where the rookie ended up making contact with the senior driver.

That is one moment where Ocon feels the dynamic shone through as the drivers sat down with the team boss and discussed what had happened. Talking about the moment and how that was an important juncture in the partnership, Ocon said,

"I didn't think about that, but it's actually a good point," Ocon said when asked if he was surprised that Silverstone didn’t escalate in the way similar flashpoints had with Gasly or Perez."

He added,

"That's because, you know, we are very straight and honest between ourselves and straight away after the race, we sat down with Ayao there and we talked about different conditions, what we could have done better to avoid that scenario, where we should have taken care a bit more and [at] what part of the corner. It hasn't changed the fundamental thing. We just learned a little bit more what we can do in those kind of situations."

The duo has had a great relationship so far, but whether it continues to be this cordial in the future or not is a question we'd have to wait to answer. Once the stakes are raised, things could get a bit tricky between Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman in the future.