F1 News: Esteban Ocon And Kevin Magnussen's Futures Doubted By Former Champion

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has cast a shadow over the futures of drivers Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen. Villeneuve minced no words in expressing his severe doubts about the pair’s racing capabilities, highlighting a fundamental lack of "spatial awareness."

Villeneuve commented during an interview with Best Online Poker Sites:

"Especially with Kevin Magnussen, there is something wrong and there is more and more of it in F1. You see drivers with zero race craft, zero common sense, or understanding of what is actually going on. There is an absence of logic on what is happening on the race track. They have no spatial awareness.

"You learn these things in Formula 4 and Formula 3. You don’t even move up if you don’t get it by then. This issue stems from that. They are not taught in the smaller formulas. You wonder in those categories where the marshals are, where are the rulings that need to be made. You see some crazy stuff."

Highlighting specific concerns about Ocon, Villeneuve referenced Ocon’s recent aggressive maneuver against teammate Pierre Gasly in Monaco, pointing out a severe lack of judgment.

"With Ocon, It is not the first time he has done that. It was overly aggressive even if it had not been between team-mates. The overtaking maneuver worked. It was very aggressive and ballsy. But then instead of leaving enough room on the outside he drove as if nobody was there. What was Gasly supposed to do?"

Further, Villeneuve lumped Magnussen into the same bracket, lamenting a widespread decline in basic race comprehension.

"It goes in the same category as the Magnussen incident. Where is the comprehension, race craft, logic, understanding of your space? It is not the first time we have found Ocon in these situations.

"There are more and more drivers in that spectrum that get to F1. They are quick but all that space awareness and race craft is nowhere. It is crazy. We are talking about the top level of F1.

"It took the team to get angry for him to apologise and that was on social media. Not even through the press. He was full of excuses, it ‘s racing, the adrenaline. He was trying to find excuses when there weren’t any. No valid explanation.

"If he had just said: ‘I really messed up and went over the top’ that would have been easy."

This critique comes after Esteban Ocon and Alpine confirmed they will part ways at the end of the current season and Kevin Magnussen's future is also in doubt with currently no contract for 2025.