Esteban Ocon admitted the current situation regarding his future within Formula 1 is leaving him disappointed, with the Frenchman increasingly likely to be without a drive in 2019.
The current Racing Point Force India F1 Team driver looks set to depart his current outfit, perhaps before the end of the current campaign in favour of Lance Stroll after the Canadian’s father Lawrence Stroll led a consortium to take over the team during the summer break.
Ocon has seen himself be linked with drives with both the Renault Sport Formula One Team and McLaren F1 Team in recent weeks but both teams have now finalised their line-ups, with the Frenchman’s links with Mercedes-Benz seemingly going against him.
The Frenchman admits that the longer the uncertainty remains over his 2019 plans, the less likely they will include a race seat in Formula 1, which after two strong campaigns with Force India would leave him extremely disappointed, however he is not laying the blame on anyone for the scenario he has been put in.
“I am not frustrated, I am really disappointed. That is more the word,” Ocon is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I am not upset against anyone or anything.
“But I have worked really hard to get here, I keep working really hard to perform those last two years. This year I have progressed compared to last year and it is 11-3 in qualifying against [teammate] Sergio [Perez].
“I am fighting hard to do the best I can every race and arriving here, not knowing what I will do next year is hard to swallow obviously.
“There are still hopes, but less and less as you know,” he added. “That is what I am disappointed [about] at the moment – to see that it is not only results that come in play.
“It has to be other things, and that is what I am disappointed about – to be in that situation, because it is hard to believe that I was in a great position two months ago and things have come that way now.”