Ocon not getting carried away by Renault speculation

The Frenchman, who famously beat Max Verstappen to the 2014 European Formula 3 championship, is part of the Mercedes young driver programme but has been loaned to Renault this season for reserve duties.

He finished second overall on the final test of this week's Silverstone test for Mercedes, and is believed to be a strong contender to get moved up to a full-time race seat with Renault for next season.

But despite the paddock rumour mill, Ocon says that his priority right now is focusing the best job he can in his remaining free practice outings.

“My target is to be in F1 next year, and I’m working as much as I can and getting ready for next year,” he explained.

“It’s still early to speak about that, I still have FP1 outings to do. I have to focus there on not on next year.”

Ready for challenge

Ocon added that he feels he now has enough experience under his belt to make the step up F1 if the chance comes up.

"I’m ready to race," he said. "I’ve been around F1 a long time, so I’m ready to race whenever there is an opportunity.”

When asked specifically about the potential to become part of Renault's long-term future, he said: “For sure yeah. The target there is to be champion at some point.

“There’s a lot of work to do, but they want to build their performance back to what they had before. I don’t know if it will happen, but they are working as hard as they can and they deserve to have that at some point.”

Although he is most strongly linked with Renault, Ocon's links with Mercedes could give him opportunities at other teams that have associations with the German car manufacturer.

“I’m a Renault driver, but managed by Mercedes,” he said. “If there is an opportunity anywhere, I would take it.

“The boss is deciding that stuff. I’m focused 100 percent on myself. I trust other people to do that [sort my future] for me.”

Additional reporting by Jamie Klein