P1 with Matt and Tommy - Esteban Ocon answers his most Googled questions!

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Estie Bestie is back on the pod! He joins us to answer some of the most Googled questions about him - does he like Drive to Survive? Has he watched his race win back? And how did he end up in F1? For more info about the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix, click here! [US residents only]Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast. Today, we're going to be sharing with you the second part of our chat with Esteban Okon. After our podcast, I sat down with Esty Besty to talk to him about the things people Google about him the most. His relationship with Pierre Gazley. Did he grow up poor? Is he Spanish? Yes, people really ask that. We've released the video on YouTube, but we thought as an extra treat for all you amazing audio listeners, we'd release the full uncut interview for you right now. Enjoy. Hello everybody and welcome to a P1 video in the flesh. And yes, Esty Besti is here once again. And today we are going to do a very exciting video where you answer.

What is it? You know what it is. Yes, you told me just before. Google's most asked questions. So we're going to be finding a lot out about you. So are you ready? I'm not scared. You're not scared, come on.

You know I wouldn't trust you. Yeah. Well, maybe you're sure. after this. Here we go then. Right. The first question is how tall is Esteban Ockon? Well, you are going to have some new numbers. Yeah. New numbers? Yeah. Because when Google's always wrong. No, no, no, no, no, because I'm sure that comes from Formula One, the information, and they put 186 out there, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. That's what you got. So I'm right on that. But I measure myself not too long ago and I'm 188. So I've grown. Yeah. I don't know how

is that possible. How old you? 26. Are you still growing? Apparently. Maybe it's Formula 1, like the G-forces or something. Yeah, it's probably it's putting me the other way. It's not compressing me, it's putting me high.

Because we had you down as joint tallest with Alex Albon, so I think you two need to go back to back and then we see who we can crown. No problem, let's do it. I'm pretty confident now. The tallest driver, yeah? I was confident before, but now I'm even more confident. Yes, P1. Exactly. What is it like being the tallest driver?

Not good. I tell you. You wish you were shrinking. Yeah, I wish I was smaller. Now it's a lot of problems, obviously, to try and fit yourself the best in the car. So the engineers have to work a lot to try and get you a bigger tub, a good position, and you have a lot of helmet lift as well if you're quite high. So no, it's not the best thing.

Probably if I was running or doing basketball, it would be a better thing. But, no, I'm better in a race car. So how much time do you think you're losing being as tall as you are? No, I don't think I'm losing time anymore. There we go. Okay, yeah, three seconds. There you go with that, there you go. You would have won every race you've taken part in.

Okay, next question. This is an interesting one. Is Esteban Okon Spanish? Why do people think you're Spanish? I'm half Spanish, so it's half true. Okay. Yeah, because basically from my dad's side, my grandparents are born in Spain. So I speak Spanish.

And yeah, I have half, I'm 50% percent. Spanish, basically. Oh, wow. Okay. But under the French. Under the French, yeah. I'm born in France and my dad is also one in France. Amazing. And that actually loops us into the next question, which is amazing. It's almost like you've seen these. The next one is Esteban-Ocon parents. How much influence have they had on your career? Because I don't feel like your journey to Formula One is spoken about enough because it wasn't easy by any stretch. Like you hear Lewis Hamilton story and how inspirational that is, but I feel like yours is, you know, is a really interesting one as well. Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, no, for sure my parents, they've dedicated their whole life to me, you know, which is not something that every parents do. And, you know, I feel, you know, super privileged to have had this chance and for my parents to sacrifice everything, you know, because they were believing that I had some capabilities and believing that, you know, it was also what I wanted to do.

Since I was super young, everything that I wanted to do was Formula One. It was always, you know, only that, not football, not being a chef, you know, no disrespect to all of these other jobs. To Sonoda that wants a restaurant. Yeah, exactly. For me, for me, it's always been Formula One. And yeah, they've sacrificed everything, as I said. So they were probably the biggest, you know, influence.

So you said about basketball, you know, because of your height, there weren't any other sports that you were good at. Well, yeah, I was good at all the sports. Good at all of them. Not all of them, but as soon as there was an engine, I was better. So which other sports are you really good at then, would you say? Well, I was quite good at motocross when I was younger. I mean, in my garden.

Who are you racing at this time? Charles. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. We were doing some motocross, a lot time motocross on his guy. garden as well. How old were you there? We were what, eight, seven, eight? So you and Charles were racing each other at that time? Yeah, on the motocross, yeah. It was good fun. You won? Well, we had a lot of chance. That's what I can tell you, but yeah,

not putting in any debate. Yeah. Amazing. There's another question here. Did Ocon grow up poor? There's people that, as I kind of mentioned, like billionaire kids making it very easy through there. Would you say your family were poor when you grew up? No, I would not say no, that we were poor. I never, you know, lacked anything in particular. I always had, you know, enough food. I always had enough clothes. We were not rich enough, you know, to be doing the sport that we were doing.

That's very clear, but we were not poor. And my parents were, you know, doing everything they could, you know, for me to grow up normally and to grow up the best way, you know, I could. so no I was not poor so when you were growing up as well did you have like a little part-time job or something that were you just focusing on racing or did you have to do like any little

jobs? Well no I was helping my dad basically as much as I could because you know he he was working on his garage you know by himself you know working on the cars and all that but at the time I was I was too young you know to really help you know I was trying to clean you know

things that I could and you know to try and give him, you know, an easier time, but it was when we were going go-karting, that he had to, you know, build the tans, you know, unload and load the truck itself, you know, load the caravan. Yeah, it was all of these, you know, different aspects that nobody really saw that he was doing all by himself on top of being, you know, the race mechanic and helping my mom as well. So, no, we were basically flat out doing all that. was that quite a special thing to have them so close to you as you were going through the ranks and pushing yourself and trying to win to have your dad there alongside you?

Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, they were the biggest support. And of course, we had great people that came around as well to support them financially. And, you know, for a year or two, you know, we suddenly had, you know, money to buy new tires, to buy, you know, chassis. Yeah, tires and engines. And yeah, it was just, you know, seeing.

the progress, you know, that was great and seeing, you know, how we evolved by ourselves, really, only taste sweeter now. Amazing. Next one, Espanoc on Spider-Man. Now, I know we've spoken about this in the podcast, but for those that haven't seen it, tell us about your love of Spider-Man. Well, the love from Spider-Man probably comes from these days, you know, when we're traveling in the van and the caravan. I had this little screen with 3D. and the three DVDs were Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3. No other films. No, there was no other films.

No, no. They were on repeat, you know, forever when we are doing Evreux to Sarno by caravan and 19kpH with the track. That's about 15 to 17-hour drive. Yeah, I had a lot of time to play Spider-Man. You must know every word of the entire Spider-Man. Yeah, very close. I probably forgot now a bit because I stopped watching it for probably, yeah, seven, eight years. But it will come back to you.

Have you ever had the full onesie Spider-Man? But it's all in French. I was only watching it in French. Never in English. Yeah. But still I do now because when I was younger, I was not speaking English. Yeah. And I've always watched the movies in French.

And now when I watch a movie, for example, with Mick, you know, he watches it in English. And I'm like, it feels wrong, you know, to me. I always watch it in French. are amazing. So have you ever had the full costume? Have you ever? No. No.

That needs to happen. I had the web, the spiderwecks. Yeah. But not the full. Not the full. Okay. That needs to happen. I reckon you'd enjoy it.

I have an Iron Man helmet. Okay. Which is pretty cool. Right. But no Spider-Man. Okay. Right. Tommy, write that down.

That's a gift. I have a better thing. I have a race helmet Spider-Man. Of course. We need the overall as well. Exactly. Yeah. Maybe we think about that.

No. Cool. That's Alpin. Alpin. Alpin? Okay. I don't know what I mean, I do work here now. Exactly, yeah.

The next one is Ocon and Gassley. Now, is it strange being teammates with Pierre now, since you grew up with him and spent time carting together, that you're now both racing for Alpine? Not really. It's not really strange. I mean, we've always been racing together through the categories. And we were also team-made for a test in GP2 back then, just before. I want the GP3 championship.

So does it feel weird? Yes and no. No, because we always live so close. We always saw each other so much that, you know, it just feels normal, you know, that he's here now. And I know, it's cool actually to see him, you know, racing in F1 and to see him, you know, competing and being so successful as well. So, no, it's great to have him on board. not too successful now that you're racing against each other. Exactly.

Next one is Esteban Ocon, Drive to Survive. Where do you stand on it? Do you enjoy it? Do you sit there and go? That's an accurate representation of Formula One. Where do you have your opinion? I think honestly, I think season one was really nice. And I've enjoyed filming with Netflix.

I've gave them a lot of my time to come in filming at my training center and all that. And yeah, it was nice just to see how they were going to put it together and how they were going to shape the story. And I think it followed quite well to some extent who I was. I think after that it started to become a little bit too dramatic at times. But we can't complain having good advertising on our sport and good advertising on ourselves as well as athletes. I think it's just awesome to be covered by such a platform. So yeah, drive to survive, I would say, yeah, watch it. Yeah, so you've watched every season?

No. Season one. I watched season one. No, you know what I did? It's even wasn't that the future season. I've watched it in frame, you know, so I was looking at, I know, I know what they are going to say there. Because I was there, obviously, the whole season.

So I knew how they were going to shape things once I saw the images. That's actually a question to lead off of that is do you watch the races back? So do you actually go back and watch, you know, crofty commentating over a race? Because I know some drivers don't, some drivers do. I do watch highlights every time, that's for sure. And then when there is some crucial moments or things that I need to look at, look out for what happened at that time or what could we have done better, yeah, I do watch. And then, of course, you watch the P1 content that comes out afterwards,

podcast, funny his tweets. But you know what? I come across your, your comments or your when you have like an important take on something on instagram all the time so that's weird because i never ever think that formula one drivers see our stuff ever yeah yeah i do watch okay good well i'm glad you still follow us that's uh no worries until until you say something wrong about me then i'll follow you we would never um next one is estabano on ocon ballondor now this was uh an interesting event where you actually drove an f1 car to the event or in the

What was that like? You delivered the trophy. That was insane. Like how, even like holding the ballandeau already is something that, you know, nobody really had the chance of doing so apart from, you know, the players, the football players and the top ones. But to do it twice, to bring it once on stage already. And then to bring it with a Formula One car.

Like, I think there's no F1 driver that can say, oh yeah, I drove in in Paris, with an F1 car and I did so. It's a crossover. I don't think anyone really expected either. Yeah. You know what? I dig a hole in the floor as well. On the ground on the tarmac.

Yeah, yeah. Gave a bit too much wheel spin. Yeah, well, basically they told me, oh yeah, you can do donuts on that street. And I said, but what are those cones? Like, can you remove them? No, actually, those are metal bars. And I'm like, but I can't do a donuts through two meters wide, you know? That's not possible.

So basically I will spawn for like a minute, like sat down on the floor and I dig the hole in the ground. That's cool. That should be like then sign, you know, Estab. Yeah, maybe you can send back to the Paris. That's a cool thing. But it clearly meant a lot to you. That was a special moment. Yeah, a special moment.

Yeah, it was just awesome. And yeah. I bet the room was full of just star-studied celebrities everywhere. Well, like one meter away, it was Idan, Ronaldo. In front of me was Killian Mbapé. Did you get to speak to any of them? Yeah, I mean, well, now, obviously, it's an ambassador for our brand, Zedan. So we work together.

And yeah, I mean, I got a signed jersey by Killian and Vapi and by other places as well. You're just like a kid in the candy, shall be? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'll speak to next. Rinaldo's over there. Yeah, what am I doing there? Yeah. You know, it's awesome.

It's amazing. Hopefully you get to continue to do that. Yes, yes, I hope. I hope it'll be the dream. This next Google question just made me last, so I included it. Is Estebanok on good is a question that people decide to type? How would you respond to that? Are you good?

I hope so. I'm trying to be good in my sport. But actually, I have a funny story. Somebody, not too long ago, actually, was the launch this year in London. Somebody came and talked to me and said, can we have a picture? And then we started chatting about the launch, about the new season and stuff like that. And he said, you know what? I didn't like you before.

But I said, but why? Because why would you say that? Yeah, you don't know me. Yeah, but from what I used to see and from your racing actions and stuff like that, I didn't like you. But now that I've talked to you, you know, you are a really nice guy. And honestly, it did hurt me a bit because I thought, you know, it's strange to. But I was happy that he told me in a way because probably, yeah, that's what people. I don't realize that when you are racing is something completely different to how you are as a person, as a genuine person.

And that's how I try to be, you know, just a genuine guy, you know, racing hard. So thank you. You are. You are. I would say genuinely, you're not just because you're here. You are the nicest guy on the grid. Thank you. Thank you very much.

It's funny actually you said that story because I had something quite similar happened to me, which Tommy is definitely thinking about. But it wasn't a backhanded compliment. It was just a backhand. Oh, really? This guy, this was just before our live show, he's pulling a pint. He's literally working in this pub that we're just, we were waiting after our rehearsal for the show. And he's pulling the pint and then just go, it looks over it. Because we're just sat at a table.

Just looks over me. Are you Matt from WTF1? I was like, well, used to be. Yeah, that's a stranger guy. Yeah. And you think, oh, maybe they'll say, oh, I liked what you did. He just went, I didn't really like you over there. And I unsubscribed because you were really annoying.

And then carries on pulling his pint and just goes about his day. No. We had to stay in the bar. Yeah. I wanted another drink, but I thought you'd just spit in my drinks, so I didn't have one after that. Boy, you are also very nice, so I disagree. I wasn't teeing that up for you to hit that. No, no, but because you didn't have that, you know, coming back up.

I needed to help you. I finally got the compliment. Yes, mate. But yeah, that's the first ever hater I've ever had in life because, you know, because it's weird, because you think they're going to say something nice. Yeah, for sure. No. You just, oh, okay, you hated me.

But no, I just reminded me of that. The last one, which we have spoken about a little bit in the past. podcast, but just for those that haven't seen. Esteban Ockon-Win, that's a very popular search. How do we talk about this in a way that we haven't already spoken about in the podcast? What was... You watched it back. You know, you mentioned about what you watch...

It's not Spider-Man, two, and three. It's no Establan-Ockon-Win, Hungary. I didn't watch the whole thing, no. Have you not? No, not the whole race, no. I feel like you should do... You know how the Skyy have that feature where Martin Brundall sits in the cinema room with Hamilton and goes through...

that they should do that with you. But I've done that. I've done that, but it's only bits of the race that you watch. And also, yeah, it's very expensive. The Sky Sports or the Canal Plus or the French one. They don't want to give me a subscription for free. No, they don't. To watch your own.

So I watch highlights. I can't believe you've been given. Honestly, I could, but yeah, no, I didn't watch it completely, no, because everything went well in that race. So I only watched the bits that we could have improved. have improved and I felt that we've done you know everything that we needed I love how you're still watching it back for things that could improve even though you won the race yeah that's uh that's just f1 isn't it really like yeah did i have improved that's amazing and i want to know what

went through your head actually when the whole sea of formula one cars just opened up for you in that yeah just went into the first term in your head where you just like this is the jackpot well yeah it was exactly that so i i kind of saw you know the i think it was lance you know coming through the us and I kind of went a bit left to give him some room to crash to the car in front. And then, you know, everything opened up in front. And just after that, I thought, you know, there's going to be a high chance that we are going to do something great here. And then it's the whole story we say in the podcast.

Make sure you listen to the podcast. Look at this guy, honestly. There you go. Perfect. What I was going to ask, which we didn't ask in the podcast, was when Hamilton didn't peel into the pits, did you go, ho-ho-ho-ho. That's P-1. Thank you very much.

No. No? Did you think, oh God, I should have stayed out? Yes. That's exactly what I thought. It was obvious because to me it was completely dry and I thought, okay, 100% he's going to come in. But because you don't see the other cars coming in with you, and I thought, I did a mistake there. Because it's not often that Lewis does a mistake like that, especially on the wet getting a track, getting dry.

They got it every time right, you know, Mercedes. And then I look behind me and I see everyone pitting and I'm like, Okay, that's going to be all right. But the crazy thing that nobody really spoke about, though, was the fact that then we come out at the end of the pit lane, I stop. So I'm effectively P2 because Lewis is on the track. And then I'm going back on neutral because I'm thinking, you know, it's going to be extremely long in the restart period.

And I actually miss the restart a bit. Like, I must have done like a reaction time of like five tenths instead of like two. Oh, really slow. Yeah, but that's really slow in Formula. on standard. And then I get George, you know, passing me through. And I'm thinking, I missed my start, you know. But no, actually, he was not

allowed to pass. But for me, it was normal that he passed me because I missed the start. But no, then, you know, you had to let me go. But that wouldn't have been a different race, I think, if George are staying in front there. Because he was... Not easy to pass at the time. Yeah, because wasn't his teammate Latifi holding everyone up as well?

Which gave a really nice buffer for you and Vettel to just drive away. Did you say, have to see if he a little check in the poster? I didn't do It's an amazing story though and one that yeah we love reflecting on

and when that that moment was when you you drove over the line check and flag was for you did you cry what was yeah I had tears on time

yeah yeah definitely and then yeah like all the emotions came out very strange noise at one point as well I was like

oh you know like I was very strange what was that again just for the camera oh Something like that. But yeah, it was all the emotions and yeah, all the flashback from all the years of, you know, hard work and the tough times really that came back through my mind.

And yeah, all worth it. I bet your parents were over the moon. Yeah. What did they say to you, like the first things they said to you when you eventually spoke to them? Yeah, they were on the phone. They were all crying and everybody turned up at my house, my whole family and everyone. Yeah, they all came and yeah, it was just awesome. I got that picture when they all did a picture and holding a glass of champagne.

I would always, yeah, keep that one as a great memory. That's amazing. Well, there you go. There is Esteban Ocon's most Googled questions. I want to say thank you so much, my friend. He was nice because they were not the most Google questions. So we had to, you know, we were nice about it. But I hope you enjoyed it.

Espan, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks, thank you on video. And we'll see him and you very soon. See you soon. P1 is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.