回顾拉塞尔如何在梅赛德斯取代奥孔的位置
随着埃斯特班·奥孔离开哈斯的消息得到确认，他的F1生涯可能（暂时）画上句号，媒体回顾了他职业生涯的关键节点——乔治·拉塞尔取代他成为梅赛德斯的下一代F1车手。
如今，埃斯特班·奥孔离开哈斯的消息得到确认，他的F1生涯很可能（暂时）就此结束，我们回顾他职业生涯的一个关键时刻——乔治·拉塞尔正是在那时取代他成为梅赛德斯的下一代F1车手。
请阅读马克·休斯对事情经过的总结，这篇文章最初发表于2021年，当时拉塞尔被宣布为刘易斯·汉密尔顿的新队友。
尽管在讨论梅赛德斯未来的F1车手阵容时，奥孔的名字偶尔被简单提及，但实际上，当那个空缺席位出现时，它几乎肯定属于拉塞尔。
但在2010年代末，曾有一段时间，对奥孔来说这似乎只是时间问题。
事实上，他曾非常接近在2019年德国大奖赛上代替身体不适的汉密尔顿出场——这与后来拉塞尔获得的机会一模一样。
如果汉密尔顿选择在那个霍根海姆周末退出，雨天的比赛环境对奥康来说再好不过了——他是一名出色的雨战车手，而且早已对梅赛德斯W10赛车了如指掌。
奥康在雨中与他F3时代的老对手马克斯·维斯塔潘为冠军而战——甚至完全可以想象他会比瓦尔特利·博塔斯表现更出色——这或许会彻底改变他职业生涯的轨迹。
那也将是一个非常关键的时机，因为当时托托·沃尔夫正在权衡是否延长博塔斯的合同。2020年那里有一个潜在的车手席位，奥康这一年已经以第三车手的身份与车队合作——对于任何变动来说，那都会是一个完全合适的时机。在雨天德国大奖赛上的抢眼表现，说不定就能促成这笔交易。
但他没有得到参赛机会，而且不走运的是，就在他休整赛季的那一年，梅赛德斯青训车手拉塞尔在横扫2018年F2锦标赛之后，正于威廉姆斯车队的处子赛季中大放异彩，全面碾压复出的罗伯特·库比卡，并用他的速度让车队为之倾倒。
实际上，奥孔从未真正令人信服地证明自己能从一名受梅赛德斯扶持的青训车手转型为“下一个汉密尔顿”。梅赛德斯青训计划的全部意义就在于找到下一位F1超级巨星，而最终奥孔所做的还不足以压倒性地证明这一点。与此同时，拉塞尔无论在车内还是车外都没有犯过任何错误。
奥孔曾后来居上，超越了梅赛德斯最初的青训车手帕斯卡·维尔莱茵，成为被看好的那一个。奥孔速度很快，维尔莱茵可以说更快。但在某个节点上，沃尔夫——他曾在2016年帮助维尔莱茵借助使用梅赛德斯引擎的玛鲁哈车队进入F1——做出了判断：此后将优先培养奥孔，即2014年欧洲F3锦标赛冠军和2015年GP3锦标赛冠军。
归根结底这些都是主观判断，但维尔莱茵（18岁时便成为2015年DTM德国房车大师赛冠军）不知为何没有像奥孔那样留下有利的印象。
2016年赛季中期，当里奥·哈里安托的资金耗尽后，他们两人被一起安排到了马诺车队。于是梅赛德斯从斯帕站开始，把自家青训车队的另一位车手奥孔调到了这支小车队。在共事期间，维尔莱恩在排位赛中以5比2领先，优势达到0.245秒，相当可观。但那是建立在他有半个赛季先发经验的基础上的。
那个赛季，维尔莱恩五次把马诺车队的赛车带进了第二节排位赛，这是非常了不起的成就，而且他的首个计时圈几乎总是表现出色。但随着经验积累，奥孔越来越强势，在雨中的巴西大奖赛上他成了明星之一，完全盖过了维尔莱恩——后者承认自己被糟糕的天气和几乎为零的能见度吓到了。
梅赛德斯希望2017年能在其合作车队印度力量安排一名自己的青训车手，两人都为能与塞尔希奥·佩雷斯搭档出赛而进行了测试。他们在赛车内的表现相当接近，但奥孔在赛道之外给人留下的印象要好得多，最终为他赢得了这个席位。
尽管维尔莱恩最终在2017年获得了索伯车队的席位（那时的索伯远不如印度力量有竞争力），但他与梅赛德斯合作的势头已经失去了。
奥孔当时是更被看好的一位，他正准备迎来自己在F1的首个完整赛季。而19岁的拉塞尔此时已经进入了梅赛德斯的视野：他在2016年F3系列赛中获得季军，首次造访澳门就拿下杆位，还用一份极具说服力的演示文稿（PPT）让沃尔夫大为惊艳（这份演示后来也给威廉姆斯车队留下了深刻印象）。
由于奥孔在印度力量车队与佩雷斯的速度相当接近，拉塞尔则作为梅赛德斯青训车手，在自己的首个赛季就横扫了GP3锦标赛。
拉塞尔的整体形象极为职业化，他会把每一个机会都榨取到极致。这种光彩和刻苦钻研的态度使他脱颖而出——他的天赋也是如此。他最终为自己赢得了无可辩驳的地位，成为一股悄然而不可阻挡的力量。
这些事情，也就是区分一名车手与另一名车手的细节，只有经过几个赛季才会显现出来。与此同时，奥孔在2018年于印度力量的第二个赛季依然速度很快，但并不比佩雷斯更快（那年他们平均排位赛差距为0.005秒，奥孔略占优势，但在积分榜上他仍然落后于经验极其丰富的佩雷斯）。
赛道上与佩雷兹有过多次激烈争夺，而佩雷兹在轮对轮对抗中出了名的强硬。这些冲突未必都是奥孔的错，但奥孔本身也是个硬骨头，他当年几乎没有任何资源支持，硬是凭自己杀进了这项运动。
这种好斗的一面有时可能反而害了他，比如在巴西站他试图从领跑的维斯塔潘身上套圈时发生碰撞，导致这位红牛车手丢掉了冠军，那次碰撞完全没有必要。
赛后两人在称重区的争执也让人打上问号：这样一种性格，究竟能否适应作为汉密尔顿队友的环境？要知道，正是博塔斯随和的性格，让汉密尔顿取得了比当年与好斗的尼科·罗斯伯格搭档时更高的成就。
就在这一切发生的同时，拉塞尔正进一步融入梅赛德斯，其间还以新秀身份横扫了F2锦标赛。在不与F2赛程冲突的大奖赛上，他会随车队一同出行，参加汇报会，并在模拟器上完成很有价值的工作。
2017年，还在参加F3的他首次在布达佩斯试驾F1赛车，当时强大的过载让他的眼睛出血。但一年后在同一场测试中连续两天坐进赛车时，他的准备已经充分得多，并且制造了不小的轰动——他做出的最快圈速压过了基米·莱科宁驾驶的极快的2018款法拉利，而且他的成绩比那辆车此前在布达佩斯的圈速还要快。
不仅如此，他还凭借自己的反馈和有条不紊的工作方式给工程师们留下了极其正面的印象。他去年在萨基尔惊艳表现的伏笔，早在2018年那场测试中就已经显现。
奥孔其实并没有做错什么具体的事——而且他还在斯帕排出了出色的第三位。但拉塞尔正在梅赛德斯内部掀起波澜。随后劳伦斯·斯特罗尔收购印度力量车队，意味着奥孔在那里不再有位置，因为佩雷斯被留用了。
沃尔夫为奥孔谈下了2019年雷诺的车手席位，但当丹尼尔·里卡多出人意料地宣布想加盟该队时，这一安排被撕毁。很难不把那个雷诺席位看作沃尔夫的一种“感谢你的付出，祝未来好运”的姿态，正如韦尔莱因2016年在马诺车队的席位一样。
在F1的整整两个赛季里，奥孔表现不错，但并没有证明自己是汉密尔顿的天然接班人。因此，让他继续担任梅赛德斯2019年的第三车手，实际上是一个安慰奖的安慰奖。
即将与威廉姆斯开启自己F1新秀赛季的拉塞尔，此时已经取代了他的位置。奥孔不再被视为汉密尔顿的潜在替代者，但他本有可能成为博塔斯的替代者。
他相信自己当时差一点就能锁定博塔斯2020年的席位。也许吧。
在延长博塔斯的合同之后，沃尔夫说：“对我来说，关键的决定因素是，让奥孔去对抗已在梅赛德斯效力七年、正处于巅峰状态的汉密尔顿，对他并没有好处，尤其是在闲置一年之后。
“我们也许会觉得这个故事很精彩，他可能也会表现不错，但历史上只有一个车手在面对超级队友时还打出了好成绩，那就是刘易斯·汉密尔顿本人（2007年对阵费尔南多·阿隆索）。
“所以我不想拿他的职业生涯冒险，也不想让他在试图击败刘易斯的过程中做出什么冒险的事。这就是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草。”
沃尔夫还隐晦地提到了让汉密尔顿与一个好斗队友搭档的危险性，他说：“我们和尼科、刘易斯一起经历了几个艰难的年份。当时队内气氛很糟糕。”
奥康最终晚了一年到雷诺车队报到，而上个赛季他在那里被里卡多相当彻底地压制。但下雨的时候他更快。
另一边，拉塞尔在一个赛季里时不时把威廉姆斯拖到它根本不配拥有的发车位置上，随后在萨基尔以替补身份完成了一场惊艳亮相，完全盖过了博塔斯的风头。这丝毫没有消除人们的想法：他或许正是梅赛德斯车队汉密尔顿的天然接班人。
也许如果是在2019年霍根海姆那场雨战中临时替补出战，奥康本可以赢得成为博塔斯接班人的机会，因为那样的条件向来是他大放异彩的舞台。不过，他不可能像2020年的拉塞尔那样准备充分，而且要到周六早晨才能接手赛车。所以也许并非如此。
英文原文
Now, confirmation of Esteban Ocon's Haas exit is likely to spell the end of his F1 career (for now), we look back at a pivotal moment of his career, when George Russell usurped him as Mercedes' next F1 driver.
Read Mark Hughes's summary of how it happened from this article, first published in 2021 when Russell was announced as Lewis Hamilton's new team-mate.
Although there have been a few cursory mentions of Ocon’s name when discussing Mercedes’ future Formula 1 driver line-up, in reality, when that vacancy arises it’s surely going the way of Russell.
But in the late 2010s there were times when it seemed only a matter of time for Ocon.
In fact, he came tantalisingly close to standing in for an unwell Hamilton at the 2019 German Grand Prix – the exact same opportunity as Russell would later get.
Had Hamilton elected to stand down that Hockenheim weekend, the rainy circumstances of race day could hardly have been better for Ocon, a brilliant wet weather driver, and one who furthermore was already intimately familiar with the Mercedes W10.
Ocon fighting with his old F3 foe Max Verstappen for victory in the rain – and quite conceivably outperforming Valtteri Bottas – may have changed the whole trajectory of his career.
It would have been timely too, for it was as Toto Wolff was weighing up whether or not to extend Bottas’ contract. There was a potential seat there for 2020, Ocon had worked with the team as third driver for the year – and it would have been an entirely appropriate moment for any change to be made. A starring performance in the wet German Grand Prix just might have clinched the deal.
But he didn’t get the race opportunity and it was his misfortune to be sitting the season out just as Mercedes junior driver Russell, having blitzed the 2018 F2 championship, was starring in his rookie season with Williams, trouncing a returning Robert Kubica and dazzling the team with his speed.
In reality, Ocon had never quite made an overwhelming case for himself to make the transition from a Mercedes-assisted junior to the new Hamilton-in-waiting. The whole idea of the Mercedes junior programme is to find the next F1 superstar and ultimately Ocon didn’t do quite enough to make that case overwhelmingly. Russell, meanwhile, has not put a foot wrong in the car or out.
Ocon had leapfrogged ahead of the original Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein as the favoured one. Ocon was quick, Wehrlein arguably quicker. But somewhere along the line Wolff, having helped Wehrlein get his break into F1 with Mercedes-powered Manor in 2016, made the judgement call that Ocon – European F3 champion of 2014 and GP3 champion of ’15 – would henceforth be prioritised.
Ultimately these are subjective calls but Wehrlein (the 2015 DTM champion at 18 years old) somehow didn’t create as favourable an impression as Ocon.
Part-way through 2016 they were teamed together at Manor when Rio Haryanto’s money ran out. So Mercedes supplied the little team its other junior, Ocon, from Spa onwards. In their time together Wehrlein was 5-2 ahead in qualifying by the handy margin of 0.245s. But that was with half-a-season’s head start.
Wehrlein five times that season got the Manor through to Q2, which was a superb achievement, and his first laps were invariably terrific. But Ocon came on increasingly strong as he gained experience and in the wet Brazilian Grand Prix he was one of the stars, completely eclipsing Wehrlein – who admitted to being spooked by the appalling conditions and near-zero visibility.
Mercedes was keen to have one of its juniors at its partner team Force India for 2017 and both tested with a view to racing there alongside Sergio Perez. Their performances in the car were quite closely-matched but Ocon made much the better impression outside of it, ultimately securing him the drive.
Although Wehrlein eventually got a seat at Sauber for ’17 (by then a much less competitive proposition than Force India), the momentum of his Mercedes partnership was lost.
Ocon was now the favoured one as he prepared for his first full season of F1. But 19-year-old Russell was by now on the Mercedes radar having finished third in the 2016 F3 series, set pole on his first visit to Macau and dazzled Wolff with one of his highly impressive PowerPoint presentations (which would later leave a mark on the Williams team too).
As Ocon was proving quite closely-matched on pace with Perez at Force India, Russell blitzed the GP3 championship in his first season as a Mercedes junior.
Russell’s whole persona is ultra-professional and he will wring the neck of every opportunity. This sheen and studious application marks him out – as does his talent. He eventually makes an overwhelming case for himself and is a quietly unstoppable force.
These things, the details that mark one driver out from another, only become apparent over several seasons. Ocon meanwhile remained quick at Force India into his second season there in 2018 but no quicker than Perez (their average qualifying difference was 0.005s in Ocon’s favour that year, but he still trailed the super-experienced Perez in the points standings).
There were several moments of on-track contention with Perez, who is notoriously hard-edged wheel-to-wheel. They weren’t necessarily his fault but Ocon is a tough nut himself, having forced his way into the sport with very little resource behind him.
That combative side maybe worked against him on occasion and his collision as he tried to unlap himself from race leader Verstappen in Brazil, which cost the Red Bull driver victory, was unnecessary.
The contretemps between the two in the weighing area afterwards also placed a question mark about how such a personality might fit in as Hamilton’s team-mate in an environment where Bottas’s agreeable personality had allowed Hamilton to reach greater heights than when he had the combative Nico Rosberg alongside.
At just the time this was happening, Russell was embedding himself further into Mercedes, in between blitzing the F2 championship as a rookie. At the grands prix which didn’t clash with F2, he would travel with the team, sitting in on debriefs, doing valuable work on the simulator.
He’d got his first ever run in an F1 car at Budapest in 2017 when still in F3 and the forces had made his eyes bleed. But getting in the car for two days at the equivalent test a year later, he was far better-prepared and created something of a sensation by topping the times ahead of the very quick 2018 Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen – and with a time that was quicker than the car had lapped there previously.
More than that, he’d made a hugely positive impression on the engineers with his feedback and methodical way of working. The foreshadowing of his sensational Sakhir performance last year was right there in that 2018 test.
Ocon had not done anything wrong specifically – and he’d qualified a brilliant third at Spa. But Russell was making waves inside Mercedes. Then Lawrence Stroll’s purchase of Force India meant there was no longer a place there for Ocon, as Perez was retained.
Wolff negotiated Ocon a 2019 drive at Renault, which was reneged upon when Daniel Ricciardo surprised the team by announcing he’d like to join. It’s difficult not to see that Renault drive intended as a “thank you for your efforts and good luck for the future” gesture from Wolff, in much the same way Wehrlein’s 2016 Manor drive had been.
In two full seasons of F1 Ocon had done well, but had not made a case for himself as Hamilton’s natural successor. So his retention as Mercedes' third driver for 2019 was very much a consolation prize of a consolation prize.
Russell – about to embark on his F1 rookie season with Williams – had by now usurped him. Ocon was no longer seen as a potential Hamilton replacement. But he might yet have made a Bottas replacement.
He believes he was close to securing Bottas’s seat for 2020. Maybe.
“The swinging argument for me,” said Wolff after extending Bottas’ contract, “was putting Ocon against Hamilton, who has been with Mercedes for seven years and is at the peak of his game, is not good for him, especially after sitting out one year.
“We might find the story exciting and probably he would have done well but there is only one guy who ever did well against a superstar and that was Lewis Hamilton himself [in 2007 versus Fernando Alonso].
“So I don’t want to risk his career and I don’t want to risk him trying to do something to win against Lewis. That was the tipping point.”
Wolff also made an oblique reference to the perils of pairing Hamilton with a combative team-mate, saying: “We have had a number of difficult years with Nico and Lewis. There was a bad atmosphere back then.”
Ocon finally found his way to Renault one year late and last season was quite conclusively outperformed there by Ricciardo. But was quicker when it rained.
Russell, meanwhile, after a season of occasionally dragging the Williams into grid positions it had no right to, made that sensational stand-in appearance at Sakhir where he completely eclipsed Bottas. Which did absolutely nothing to dispel the idea that he just might be the natural Hamilton successor at Mercedes.
Maybe a stand-in at that wet Hockenheim ’19 race may have swung it for Ocon as the Bottas successor, for these were conditions in which he invariably shines. He would, though, have been nowhere near as well prepared as Russell was in 2020 and would have been taking over the car into Saturday morning. So maybe not.
The Race ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。