Esteban Ocon will be able to share some Mercedes secrets with Renault after revealing the topic was discussed during contract talks.
The Frenchman was very much embedded into the Brackley-based team last year as reserve driver, completing thousands of kilometres on the simulator and watching almost every race from the garage.
Naturally, the information Ocon, therefore, possesses about Mercedes’ car and operations would be absolute Goldust to Renault and is also very beneficial for him.
“I come out of there a lot stronger than I was, with a lot more knowledge on the technical side, but also on the other aspects of the organisation, the way they see things in different conditions, the way they just behave in any situation,” he said at the French manufacturer’s ‘season opener’ in Paris this week.
“I had an eye on all of that, which is completely different than even if I was driving, you know? So, definitely it has helped me.
“Of course, this year I was trying to give, to some extent, some of that [to Renault] but you have to be professional always and not give all the secrets because the engineers, they all have to be a year out before coming back to another team, it’s not the case for a driver,” he noted.
“But I still take things a lot. Within limits, I took stuff here, which both teams agreed and yeah, so far, it’s been good, I was very much involved in the development of this year’s car.”
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Ocon’s arrival at Enstone is actually more a reunion, having previously been a development driver there in 2016.
And while the full Renault R.S.20 has yet to be revealed, he did make this bold claim.
“Now it’s exciting times because you didn’t see it much here [at the launch], but it is pretty different,” he said.
“The guys at the factory, they say it’s probably the biggest step since three or four years.”