Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed Fred Vasseur personally contributed one million dollars to fund Esteban Ocon’s half-season at the Manor Formula 1 team in 2016.
Ocon joined Mercedes’ young-driver programme ahead of the 2015 GP3 season, claiming the title in remarkable fashion with 14 podiums in 18 races – including a string of nine consecutive second-place finishes – with Vasseur’s ART Grand Prix squad.
Fellow Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein, who was more experienced as the reigning DTM champion, got to make his F1 debut with Manor in 2016 alongside Rio Haryanto, whose budget eventually dried up. Having temporarily moved to DTM, again with ART, Ocon therefore got an opportunity to compete in the last nine grands prix of the season – provided he could find the required funding.
“At Mercedes we picked up the management of Esteban, due to Gwen [Lagrue, Mercedes academy boss], actually,” Wolff recounted. “Then [we] agreed to work with Fred [Vasseur] in GP3, we won the championship together.
“Then there wasn’t really an opportunity in Formula 1. The DTM door, we did that together. And then, I don’t know if that is actually known, when suddenly there appeared to be a free seat in Manor from Spa onwards, it needed two million dollars, and we [at Mercedes] were saying we can provide one million for that seat, but we were missing one million, and Fred put the money in personally to give Esteban the opportunity.”
Esteban Ocon, Manor Racing , Toto Wolff, Cyril Abiteboul, Pat Fry, Frederic Vasseur
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Getty Images
Esteban Ocon, Manor Racing
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Sutton images via Getty images
Ocon’s F1 career is at threat after he lost his Haas drive for the remainder of the season after a falling-out at the Mexico Grand Prix. His only realistic avenue to stay on the grid is Cadillac’s second seat, but the grand prix winner is understood to likely be heading to Aston Martin as a reserve driver.
“To comment on what’s happened in another team, it’s difficult,” Vasseur said. “I have enough to do with my guys, and I don’t know what’s happened between Ayao [Komatsu, team principal], Haas, the team and the driver. I don’t want to make any comment.
“For sure, it’s a shame for Esteban because I think he’s a pure competitor. He put a lot of energy all over the season to be in F1, and we need to have huge respect for this. Now, I won’t make any comment on the situation.”
Wolff added: “Over all those years, I think we were all very supportive and very strong in trying to make sure that Esteban would have the best possible opportunity. Obviously, then he went through a couple of team changes.
“I think at the end it came to the point where Ayao needed to represent the team and protect the team from certain rhetoric. And on the other side, Esteban felt personally that he wasn’t wrong in the things he said. And you’ve got to respect that at the end, the team calls the shots. The team principal needs to decide when it’s enough, and that is what Ayao did.”
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