By Joe Murphy
On the back of the hugely successful article on the most overrated member of the F1 grid in 2022 (available here at https://wheel2wheelreports.com/2022/05/11/the-most-overrated-driver-on-the-2022-grid-is/), it is only right that I consider the other side of the coin.
In my humble opinion, there are a number of drivers that are underrated and somewhat go under the radar. Pierre Gasly perhaps held this mantle for a while, but has proven his talents over enough time to gain support and is considered a top driver. Valtteri Bottas is proving this year that fans potentially underrated him as a Mercedes driver, as he consistently is putting that Alfa Romeo into competitive positions.
This article cannot consider the likes of Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen or Russell, because these four are considered the next generation of donination and the future of the sport, potentially alongside the likes of the aforementioned Gasly and Alex Albon.
Moreover, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are regularly touted as all time greats, in part due to their World Championship success.
Whilst Lance Stroll is potentially a contender for this label, I think he is just pipped to the post by one other member of the grid.
Estaban Ocon is a superb talent. He has been in F1 long enough to be considered experienced, despite a year away from the circuit. Moreover, fans forget that he is only 25 years old at the time of writing, so could easily have another decade in store. His partnership at Force India with Sergio Perez may have been ‘frosty’ at times, but the Frenchman has now gone through that learning curve and come out of it a better driver. This is his sixth year in Formula 1 and now runs alongside Fernando Alonso at Alpine, something which can only be beneficial to Estaban as he continues to hone his craft.
Despite never racing in a ‘top car’, he has scored some impressive points hauls, including stepping on the podium twice, with one of those occasions being that Hungarian Grand Prix in 2021. He may have been a beneficiary of the changeable weather and a big crash, but he had the talent to take advantage and hold his own in front of the rather more experienced Sebastian Vettel.
Arguably his strongest trait is his consistency. In GP3, he finished every race in his final season before the big time and once finished in 2nd place in NINE consecutive races. As the F1 door opened, this form continued as Ocon set a new record for most races finished in a row from his debut, back in 2017.
Are we looking at a future World Champion? Perhaps not, that might be a stretch. However, if he continues as he is doing, he could go on to have an amazing career in Formula 1. And who knows, if he takes a seat at Mercedes in the future in a car that dominates again, then the sky could be the limit for car number 31.
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