Bernie Collins names Esteban Ocon and ‘relentless’ champion as the ‘hardest working’ drivers in F1

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Every driver in Formula 1 puts in the hours behind the scenes to extract the extra tenths of a second needed to win races and championships.

It is part of the dedication and effort they must have to become the best or at the very least beat their teammate.

But while the results on track may say one thing, the nature of F1 means that how drivers conduct themselves behind the scenes can often not be reflective of that hard work.

Mechanical failures, driver errors, or strategy blunders can get in the way of a well-executed race and potentially cost drivers wins.

Nico Hulkenberg’s former race engineer branded him the best qualifier on the grid, while former Haas team boss Guenther Steiner believes Carlos Sainz is one of the best drivers on the grid.

Having worked with some of the most successful drivers in F1 between stints at McLaren and Aston Martin, former strategist Bernie Collins has revealed who the most hard-working driver is on the grid when speaking on the JA on F1 podcast.

Bernie Collins reveals the most hard-working driver in F1

Alongside extracting the most performance out of a car during a race weekend, drivers must also work with the team’s strategist to come up with the best way to execute a race and achieve the highest finishing position.

Collins worked with Esteban Ocon while he was at the Aston Martin team under the Racing Point guise, and named him alongside another prominent figure of the championship’s history.

“The person who was the hardest working was probably Sebastian Vettel, in that he was very relentless in terms of looking for improvement, particularly when he first joined us, and where things could be found. Probably actually quite a close tie between him and Esteban Ocon,” said Collins.

“Ocon had quite a hard ‘in’ to F1 and really, really wanted it to work. So those two actually worked quite hard. But he [Vettel] really understood and he got what we were trying to achieve a lot of the time, in terms of strategy and what the implications might be.”

Ferrari did not like Sebastian Vettel before he joined

Vettel was one of the most dominant drivers in F1 between 2010 and 2013, having won four titles and accumulated 122 podiums with Red Bull.

It was because of his close title battles with then-Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who missed out on titles with the Scuderia in both 2010 and 2012, that fellow strategist Ruth Buscombe said the German star was initially not that popular at the Italian team.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Vettel has been mooted for a potential return to F1 in recent months after speculation grew over who could replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, although it is likely that it will go to 17-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the future.

Any return for Vettel would likely be in 2026 at the earliest, although he will be 38 years old by the time the season starts.