'Everybody Was Scared Of Jos And Max': Ocon Looks Back On 'Fiery' Go-Karting Rivalry

Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 18:00

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon described the rivalry between himself and Max Verstappen, which had already started in go-karts.

Many people don't know this, but Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Esteban Ocon knew each other long before joining F1.

Being almost the same age, they naturally competed and met in the same karting competitions. The French driver remembered the karting years during his most recent appearance on the High-Performance Podcast, where he said:

"It was those [karting] years, when we were with my dad, against him and his dad. [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."

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As to how his rivalry with the triple World Champion developed from there, Ocon described the fiery karting competition. He said:

"It was, to be fair – it was very fiery. Everybody was a little bit scared of Jos and Max at the time, because Jos was driving F1 before, so he's [known] for how fierce and how scary he can be, talking to other young kids and all that on go-kart tracks."

"My dad and myself, we were never scared, because we just wanted to race, we wanted to race hard. We raced hard, we raced really hard, and at times we crossed lines at certain go-kart races."

The Frenchman would later meet with Verstappen in Formula 3, where he actually managed to beat Verstappen. However, Verstappen then went from F3 straight to F1, and Ocon didn't get the same opportunity.

The 27-year-old remembers this "tough to swallow" moment until today. Nevertheless, he eventually made it into F1 as well, and he received support from team principal Toto Wolff, who made him part of Mercedes' F1 academy.