Force India race engineer, Brad Joyce, believes that despite the loss of the team’s long term racer, Nico Hulkenberg to the Renault team for 2017, they have made a good choice in signing 2016 rookie driver Esteban Ocon to replace him.
Joyce understands that the deal to move to Renault was too good for Nico to pass up and has praised Ocon’s talents in his pre Formula One days, such as beating the highly sought after Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, to the Formula Three title.
“Nico was offered a very good three-year-deal by Renault so that was a very good move for him," Joyce told Lincolnshire Live. “But we think Esteban is a young driver with huge potential. He has won just about every racing series he was involved with in the junior ranks and even beat Max Verstappen to win the European Formula 3 Championship.”
“He is very quick and he does not come from extreme wealth as with a lot of other young drivers at the moment. He is very grounded and a very nice guy. We have high hopes for him."
Ocon will line up alongside Mexican racer Sergio Perez, who will help guide him in his Formula One journey.
