Threat to Ocon's F1 future is 'unfair' - Gasly

Pierre Gasly has said that he believes the threat to Esteban Ocon's future in the sport is "unfair", and that the situation was "pretty tough".

Ocon, Gasly's former karting rival, is widely expected to be replaced by Canadian Lance Stroll, who currently drives for Williams. This comes after Force India were forced into administration over the summer break, and were then saved by a consortium led by Stroll's father, Lawrence.

This has left Ocon without many options for 2019, as he nearly had a deal with Renault until they signed Ricciardo, and had strong talks with McLaren also, which also fell through when they decided to go with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. He has also been ruled out by Toro Rosso for as long as he has links with Mercedes.

Gasly said: “I mean, this world in F1, it’s not the first time that things are unfair. I’ve always said it, and I think everyone more or less agrees with it, that performance should be the only parameter to get your seat in Formula 1 and we all believe it should be the case."

“Unfortunately it’s a sport where politics and money play a massive part and as a driver it’s difficult to accept sometimes and I think he’s facing a situation that’s quite unfair.”