Esteban Ocon scored eight points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017, the first time he raced there. In the six visits since he has scored one.
Seven starts, nine points, two retirements and a best finish of sixth that is now nine years old. Very few records on the grid peak this early and then flatten out this completely.
One good afternoon, then a long slide down the grid
The 2017 race was a Force India at its best: seventh on the grid, sixth at the flag, on a day when the order in front of him came apart. He qualified seventh again in 2018 and was out on the first lap in a collision.
The Alpine years brought a turbo failure in 2021 and then the only other points of his Baku career: tenth place and a single point in 2022, from thirteenth on the grid.
What has happened since is a qualifying story more than a racing one. He has started the last three Azerbaijan Grands Prix from nineteenth, twentieth and twentieth, and finished fifteenth, fifteenth and fourteenth. At a circuit with one real overtaking spot, starting on the last two rows sets the ceiling before the lights go out.
Esteban Ocon's Azerbaijan GP record year by year
Every Azerbaijan Grand Prix start, with the grid slot it came from and what it was worth.
| Season | Grid | Finish | Points | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 7 | P6 | 8 | Force India |
| 2018 | 7 | P19 | 0 | Force India |
| 2021 | 12 | P20 | 0 | Alpine |
| 2022 | 13 | P10 | 1 | Alpine |
| 2023 | 19 | P15 | 0 | Alpine |
| 2024 | 20 | P15 | 0 | Alpine |
| 2025 | 20 | P14 | 0 | Haas |
Give him a grid slot and the rest follows
No win, no podium, no pole and no fastest lap. The two times he has started inside the top ten here he came away with points on one of them and was taken out on the other. The five times he has started outside it, he has scored once.
He returns on 26 September in the VF-26 for Haas. A Saturday inside the top twelve would be worth more to this record than anything he does on the Sunday.
