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!"

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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."

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