Ocon: I was not a normal kid!

Force India driver Esteban Ocon, who has emerged as the revelation of the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship season, admits that his strong showings are a result of very hard work and being a tad out of the ordinary too.

Ocon is not your normal 'rookie' as last year he did nine races with the now defunct Manor Racing team, which gave him invaluable mileage at the highest level.

During that period he did enough to impress Force India bosses to sign him ahead of highly rated Pascal Wehrlein. It was an unexpected call at the time.

But it has proved to be an inspired signing as 20 year old Ocon has shone alongside vastly experienced Sergio Perez and now the Frenchman is starting to seriously threaten the Mexican on track.

Ocon told the official F1 website, "You cannot plan success! We respect the targets that we set at the start of the season – which means scoring points at every race. And that is pretty much what I am doing!"

"I have to work very hard! I have a lot less experience than Sergio so I have to catch up on so many details that come naturally to him. Before and after each race I am mostly in the factory for simulator work. I think that is what makes a big difference."

Asked how much more 'overtime' he is putting in relative to his teammate, Ocon said, "I don’t want to say a number – so let’s put it this way: a lot more!"

In 11 races Ocon has scored points on 10 occasions and spoke about his season thus far, "My personal best race was Canada. There I was feeling the best. But a great memory was also Barcelona."

"When the guys climbed the fence and were shouting at us – that was very special. In that moment finishing in P4 and P5 was just like a 1-2 finish! I am not here to stay behind Checo all the time. I want to push – very hard," he added.

Inevitably as the gap between the Force India drivers narrows, banging wheels between the pink cars has become a regular thing during races. In Baku the pair collided when Ocon made an opportunist overtake, while Perez closed the door and there was contact.

Thus what could have been a double podium finish ended with Perez suffering a DNF and Ocon finishing sixth. Perez blamed his French teammate for causing the incident and bringing an end the Mexican's 15 race points scoring streak.

Ocon insisted, "We ended his 15-race scoring streak!

We! I went to the factory right afterwards and the team said that it was a race incident and that we both made mistakes. Of course that shouldn’t happen – but a race on such a track is close to a state of emergency. We have been told that we should be more careful in the future as it was not only his fault or only my fault. End of story."

Ocon's rise to Formula 1 is a racing fairy tale in that he came from a very modest background, where his family did what they could to put the youngster through the expensive and demanding junior years of racing, before he caught the eye of the Mercedes junior programme minders who have since paid his ticket to the top.

Ocon and his family lived in a caravan as they traveled to various racing circuits, while another 2017 rookie Lance Stroll always had the best of the best thanks to his billionaire father Lawrence Stroll.

The Stroll story is quite the opposite to the Ocon tale, but the Frenchman holds no grudges, "Lance is a great guy and I hope that he will succeed in the future... behind me, though! But yes, without my racing success – where the pieces of the puzzle fell into the right places – I probably would now be working as a mechanic or have another simple job."

"The McDonalds example was just a joke but it went viral worldwide – but being a mechanic would have been the biggest likelihood. So yes: I am hungry. I know where I come from and I know of all the sacrifices my parents have put in to make my career possible. Probably this is a similarity to Lewis!"

Ocon was referencing to the fact that one of the sport's great duels was that between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton - a prince versus the pauper style fable that played itself out in Formula 1 until the end of last year.

Being of meagre means meant that Ocon was under huge pressure each time he raced, "I only can say if I had not have succeeded it would have been terrible. I had big, big pressure from a very young age. I was not a normal kid! I didn’t have a kid life!"

"Probably you could say that I went straight from being a toddler to an adult life. Sure that is a bit exaggerated – but when you are so young you feel that way. I understood the facts of life from very early on. It was a hard time – but now it is time for me to enjoy!" added Ocon with a trademark smile.