Esteban Ocon eyes drift championship outing as he proposes seat swap

Haas Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon has shared his interest in taking part in a drift championship outing.

The Frenchman, who joined Haas ahead of the 2025 season after a five-year stint with Renault/Alpine, has already taken part in the World Rally Championship and is keen to give drifting a try.

"It’s still related to cars, but swapping seats with some drift championship guys would be nice," the 29-year-old said to F1.com when asked what job he would be doing if he were not in F1.

"Not for too long, but for a day! I did the WRC [World Rally Championship] as well already, which was insane. There are so many things to try, really. I was talking with my girlfriend not too long ago, and obviously I still have a long time to be racing, but I’ve done that all my life.

"I’ve never really thought about doing something else, because that’s all I wanted to do. One day it will come, and I will have to think about that, so let’s see!"

Should Ocon be successful in his wish, he would follow in the footsteps of fellow F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda, who recently took on a drifting masterclass with five-time Formula Drift champion James Deane.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Deane put the Japanese driver through his paces in a Ford Mustang Dark Horse before showing him how it's done in his 1100+ bhp Ford Mustang RTR.

"The adrenaline is like... Wow!" Tsunoda exclaimed after taking on the figure-of-eight challenge. "I need to calm down a little bit. I forgot to breathe, actually. I'm actually holding my breath all the time."

He added after hopping into the passenger seat of Deane's Mustang RTR: "I didn't know what was going on. I just lose the direction which I'm facing at. Like, am I facing to the wall now or... Holy s***. I sweat more than yesterday's race."