Esteban Ocon claims it is a “relief” to have joined Renault after spending a year as reserve driver at Mercedes.
The Frenchman was considered an option to replace Valtteri Bottas for next season but when Toto Wolff opted to continue with the Finn, he found refuge for the 23-year-old at the Enstone-based outfit.
And while obviously Renault doesn’t offer the potential for wins and championships that Mercedes does, Ocon insists he is happy to be back on the grid.
“I’m with a French team that has big ambitions to return to the top level in a few years, so clearly it is not at all a disappointment. Rather, it’s a relief,” he told RMC.
“Renault’s ambitions for 2020 will be to do better than this year. This year we clearly underperformed, so the team wants to do much better than that. It is not the ambition to be fifth.
“From there, we will have to progress developing the car and getting closer to the three big teams,” he added.
“My personal goal is to be on the podium during the season. I think that if we can do that, it will mean we have taken a big step forward.”
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Ocon got his chance to get accustomed to life at Renault, where he was a development driver in 2016, by completing the two-day test in Abu Dhabi after the 2019 season finale.
And his performance suitably impressed his new boss.
“Alan Permane told me that at no time did he have the impression that Esteban had not taken part in the past season,” Cyril Abiteboul told Auto Hebdo.
“So there is nothing particular to report, except the satisfaction of being able to do with Esteban what we could not do with Daniel (Ricciardo) last year because Red Bull did not allow it.
“Daniel’s integration to the team suffered a little because of that, so clearly we have saved time this time.”