“I could have killed him,” Esteban Ocon angrily reflects on his intense battle with Charles Leclerc in the karting world
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Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon
Charles Leclerc does not have an image of an overtly aggressive driver like Max Verstappen. The Monegasque driver has always been the one to leave enough space for his opponent in tightly contested corners. But, Esteban Ocon confirmed that was not the case during the karting days and Charles has matured over the years with all the experience that he has accumulated in his career.
We saw a brief little battle between the two dynamic youngsters at the Canadian GP, too. We haven’t seen that often this season around as Charles has been involved in a battle at the top of the grid and Esteban has been in that tight midfield battle.
But, Charles Leclerc was handed a grid penalty because Ferrari decided to go ahead with the 4th turbo after the blowout in Baku. This meant he had to work his way up the grid which meant he had to overtake Esteban Ocon in the process during the tail end of the race. The move was pretty neat going into the hairpin. This was definitely much safer than the move from his karting days described by Esteban Ocon.
Also read: “I miss you everyday,” Charles Leclerc remembers his late father in emotional Father’s Day message
Charles Leclerc could have died in one of the incidents during the karting days, according to Esteban Ocon
All these drivers have gone through an intense battle on the karting track and we all know that karting can get pretty nasty at times when you think about the winning mentality of these drivers. It was nothing different with Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc.
Talking about one of the battles with Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon said, “Charles was leading when we went into the last corner and I tried to overtake him, but he closed the door and we crashed.”
“Anthoine (Hubert, ed.), who was driving a few metres behind us, took the title that way. I could have killed Charles. However, things soon got back on track,” as reported by gpblog.
This definitely shows us as to how much the drivers have to mature to race in F1 as the safety of the drivers is more important than to just get a move done or winning the race and Charles Leclerc is definitely an example of that.
Also read: Lando Norris feels Montreal was a reflection of where McLaren’s current standing
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Shubham Bajpai
(776 Articles Published)