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Esteban Ocon, Force India
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Analysis

How a handshake sealed Ocon's fate

Esteban Ocon went from two options to none in the space of a summer, but it was one handshake in a two-way battle that began what could become an F1 exile.

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That someone as quick as Esteban Ocon has been left with nowhere to go is a travesty. And it has prompted a lot of reflection about the state of F1 - whether it be the struggles youngsters face in making the grid, or the growing influence of manufacturers and their driver-development programmes.

But dig a little deeper into the events of the summer and you quickly realise that how Ocon went from having two firm offers for 2019 to nothing in the space of a few weeks has little to do with the wider global picture of F1.

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