I need to learn quickly from Wehrlein - Ocon

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Esteban Ocon says he will need to learn quickly from team-mate Pascal Wehrlein ahead of his F1 race debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Manor replaced Rio Haryanto with Ocon after the Indonesian driver failed to deliver the funding to keep his seat for the rest of the season. With Ocon also a part of the Mercedes driver program, the Manor line-up pitches two Mercedes youngsters directly against each other but the Frenchman says he needs to learn from his team-mate.

“I think there is plenty of practice and tyres to get up to speed so I hope to be up to speed in qualifying," Ocon said. "I need to learn as much as I can of what Pascal is doing. He’s a quick driver, he’s been really quick since the beginning of the season so I need to learn as much as I can from him, then we will see how it goes in qualifying.”

Admitting he has had good preparation for his debut after FP1 appearances for Renault this year, Ocon says there is no added pressure being up against Wehrlein in the same car.

“No I’m coming here with the approach to learn at the moment. I am new in the car, I don’t know the car, he’s been here since the beginning of the season so I need to see how he does and then I need to align my driving style compared to him and get closer to him the most I can. The experience doesn’t come like this, I need to see how it goes.

“I don’t have extra pressure with that. I am happy to be here already and I will make the most of what I can do and I am looking forward to doing a good job and focus on myself and yes, a reference with Pascal is going to be great to have one. He’s a great driver and for sure he will be quick. I need to work on myself and do a normal job like I did in previous categories.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.