Quick? Yes. Uncompromising? You better believe it. When your family sold their house so you could go racing, you’re not the kind of kid who gives up easily – especially when there’s a Mercedes drive in the wind. That’s why, when we visited Esteban Ocon in the off-season, we didn’t find him lounging on the beach…
WORDS OLEG KARPOV PICTURES MALCOLM GRIFFITHS
SITTING IN FRONT OF A MONITOR, ESTEBAN OCON STARES INTENTLY AHEAD. On screen is something video game-like, and Ocon is in the process of zapping enemy vessels while trying to protect his own starship in the middle of the screen. The catch is – he’s only using his eyes.
The monitor is tracking his pupils – and everything that catches his gaze explodes in an instant. And there’s a twist: while Ocon must destroy the white enemy objects, he mustn’t attack the red ones, since they’re ‘friendlies’ and he’ll incur a penalty if they don’t make it to the starship. This isn’t a new shooter in the Star Wars gaming franchise, it’s a training aid developed by Xavier Feuillée, a performance coach the Frenchman has worked with since 2014, and it’s just one of tens of tools being used to hone Ocon’s reaction time and awareness.
“It helps you to detect things quicker,” Ocon tells GP Racing, getting out of the seat after coming close to setting his personal best score. “Like, if somebody spins in lap one, your reaction time is a lot quicker, and ultimately these moments can define your weekend. It’s all the little things that make a difference – and which you may not think about when you’re watching Formula 1 from the outside. But that’s the big hidden iceberg below.”
As we’re invited to swap in for Ocon as the starship’s ‘guardians’, he takes up the seat to the left – and, putting his arms on the table, it’s as if he falls asleep. But no, it’s just the next exercise – in which, with sensors gauging his heartbeat and other parameters, he needs to reach a maximum level of relaxation in the shortest possible period of time.
It’s a typical morning for Esteban – this time a bit warped by GP Racing’s presence – at the 321 Perform centre in Annecy, where we catch up with him ahead of the season. His daily routine usually begins with reaction and coordination training and other mental exercises. Then, after lunch, it’s time for the physical part.
Having worked in the Pyrenees until a couple of years ago, Feuillée relocated to the compact French town close to the Swiss border and opened a new base in a 14th-century
