With the Formula 1 season almost cut in half, the French driver admits that there won’t be any possibility of retiring during races.
As it was announced last week, Formula 1 is expected to resume its course with 15-18 races starting this summer.
Esteban Ocon, the French driver of the Renault team, said in an interview with Sky Sports, that he couldn’t afford any retirement in the race because the margin of error will be reduced by halving the races to be run.
“There’s not going to be any ‘joker’, there’s no place for DNFs. It’s going to be very important to finish all the races, score all the points available, and get it to the finish.”
Charles Leclerc also expressed his opinion about the fewer races by saying that this reduction will most likely lead teams to make risky decisions.
“Obviously having less and less races, people will want maybe to take a bit more risk. So yes, we might have some surprises and it might be actually quite exciting to watch. I’m pretty sure Mercedes and Lewis are still the favorites even if it’s an eight races championship, so it’s going to be very difficult to beat them,” he said.
“But yeah, probably we will risk, at least more on track with risky strategy or risky overtakes. Maybe it will pay off, maybe it will not.” concluded.
At least eight races must be run across three continents to make the championship count. Furthermore, Sebastian Vettel said that despite the least number of races to be run this year, the 2020 season won’t reduce its value. Thought that was fully shared by Esteban Ocon.
“The most we can do, the better it would be for a championship, I agree that a good 10 races if we can do that or more, would be still valid. There are enough races and it’s the same for everyone to determine who is the best and who isn’t in the end. As long as we can race, I am happy.” said the French driver.
