Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that Esteban Ocon will no longer be tied to Mercedes from next season. The French driver was announced to join Renault in 2020 on Friday and replacing current driver Nico Hulkenberg and will partner the Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Ocon has signed a two-year contract with Renault and will have an option to spend a third year with the French manufacturer team.
“He will be a Renault driver completely, and he will have to take the test alongside the Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo.” Wolff said.
Ocon was approached at Mercedes in 2020, but finally, the German manufacturer preferred to keep Valtteri Bottas for an additional season alongside Lewis Hamilton.
“It’s certainly not something you decide in a single day, we weighed all the options for months and looked at all the data.” Wolff said.
“For 2019, we set Valtteri the challenge of coming back even stronger than we saw him in the first part of 2018 – and he has achieved that, with some really impressive performances in the early races this year.
“Although it has been his most successful first half of a championship so far, he is hungry for more and determined to keep on improving and raising his level. That’s the mindset we want from all our team members.
“The results we have achieved together with Valtteri are no coincidence: he has been an integral part of our championship success in the past two seasons, his teamwork with Lewis has been exemplary and he has shown real strength of character in how he has responded to setbacks.” Wolff said.
Bottas is currently second in the world championship standings on 188 points. During his two and a half seasons with the team so far, he has scored five race wins and ten pole positions.
“I am very happy and proud to be part of the team for a fourth season and wish to thank every team member and the board of Mercedes for their trust and belief in me.” Bottas said.
“My performances have been getting better and better each year, and this is a great way to kick start the second half of 2019.” he added.
