Esteban Ocon admits that he is proud of himself after his first full year in Formula 1. The Frenchman debuted midway through 2016, after being handed a drive at Manor Racing. In November of last year, Force India confirmed that they had signed Ocon to race alongside Sergio Perez.

Ocon joined the team with hopes of matching the Mexican, and despite a slow start, he managed to get to his level and even beat him towards the end of the year. Ocon finished inside the points on all but two occasions, and is very happy having completed his first full season.

“It was a really quiet race with not a huge amount of things happening," the 22-year-old said of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. "The start was the busy moment when I almost got ahead of Hulkenberg, but he was on the racing line and he was able to brake later.

"From there I was running a different strategy compared to Checo and although I was getting closer to him at the end, I just didn’t have enough laps to catch him. It’s nice to end the year with another strong result and I’m really proud of what we have achieved as a team this year. The winter months ahead will involve a lot of training so that I can come back even stronger in 2018."