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Force India are hoping that Esteban Ocon will learn quickly in his new seat at Force India. The 20 year will participate in his first full season of F1 next season. He will replace Nico Hulkenberg who will heads off to Renault.
Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer of the Silverstone-based team is hoping that Ocon will deliver quickly to secure championship points for him and the team.
“We’re hoping that Esteban can learn very quickly, which is one reason that we chose him because he does show the ability to get up to speed quickly,” said Szafnauer..
“We will teach him how to drive our car and our hope is he can challenge Checo, to take over from Nico. It’s a big ask, Nico had a lot of experience and is a very quick driver himself, but I think Esteban has got the potential in time to take over from Nico and do a good job and push Checo along.
“I think it’s really important to have two drivers that can score points in the championship otherwise there’s a risk of falling behind. It’s important that Esteban steps up and scores points right away, early and often.”
Szafnauer believes that the Frenchman will have just as much to learn in 2017 as the other drivers despite only having nine races under his belt, as he racing from Manor in the second half of last season.
“I think it’s a challenge for him just coming into the team, whether it’s an old car or a new car, but because all the cars are new I think that actually helps him relative to the others,” said Szafnauer.
“We’re just going to do the best job we can and see how that rattles out. We’re just going to make sure we’re the best prepared that we can be and then after that we’ll see where the others are. Whenever there is change there’s risk and opportunity, so we like to make sure that we’re stable, but we’re changing drivers so there’s always risk there.
“If you change personnel then there’s risk and opportunity. Usually the risk happens in the short term and the opportunity in the longer term. So one of the benefits of our team is the fact that we haven’t changed personnel that much over the winter. OK, we changed one driver but so have Williams, for example. Our senior management team has stayed the same, which is important.”
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f1fan0101
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Well they need to produce the right car first before they expect him to score points...