Tag: Esteban Ocon

Ocon hit with grid penalty for next race after Gasly clash

Esteban Ocon has been given a five-place grid penalty for his next race for causing a collision with teammate Pierre Gasly at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix. Ocon attempted to overtake Gasly down the inside of Portier on the opening lap, but the …

Esteban Ocon has been given a five-place grid penalty for his next race for causing a collision with teammate Pierre Gasly at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Ocon attempted to overtake Gasly down the inside of Portier on the opening lap, but the pair collided on the exit before entering the tunnel. With Gasly unable to go any wider due to the presence of the barrier, Ocon’s left rear wheel hit his team-mate’s front left, launching Ocon into the air and damaging his car to the extent that he had to retire despite a red flag period.

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The stewards deemed Ocon to be wholly at fault for the incident, and handed him a 10-second time penalty that is converted into a grid drop of five positions at his next race.

“It was clear to us that the collision was caused solely by the overly ambitious overtaking attempt, from too far back, by Car 31 and was therefore wholly to blame for the incident,” the stewards’ decision read.

Team principal Bruno Famin also squarely blamed Ocon for the move on French television, with his driver accepting it was his error on social media having reviewed the collision.

“Today’s incident was my fault,” Ocon said. “The gap was too small in the end and I apologize to the team on this one. Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today.”

Ocon had earlier suggested it was one of his only chances to make progress into the points given the difficulty overtaking in Monaco.

“You know, you have to take care, but in the same time, we are doing 120% to be trying to get inside the top 10, for me, for Pierre,” He said. “We saw it yesterday, we pushed to the limit a lot in qualifying. Mistakes happen. That’s it.

“As we usually do … We review everything for sure, we try and do better for the next one.”

The stewards opted against investigating a bigger first-lap crash between Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez that brought out the red flag, with Nico Hulkenberg also eliminated.

Ocon eyes competing at Le Mans with Alpine in the future

Esteban Ocon has hinted that he’d like to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans one day, following the unveiling of the new Alpine A424 hypercar alongside its new Formula 1 car earlier this week. The brand will compete in both Formula 1 and the …

Esteban Ocon has hinted that he’d like to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans one day, following the unveiling of the new Alpine A424 hypercar alongside its new Formula 1 car earlier this week.

The brand will compete in both Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship this year, being the only other brand besides Ferrari to have a full presence on both grids.

When asked whether he’d be interested in sampling Alpine’s other top-level offering, Ocon said the car looked “mega” and opened the door to participating at Le Mans should the opportunity arise in future, and hinted that he might not be the only one.

“The focus is always 2000 percent on Formula 1, but I think as soon as one F1 driver will do Le Mans while the F1 season is going, many more drivers will do so, and I’m waiting for that moment to see what happens,” he said.

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The last full time F1 driver to compete at Le Mans was Nico Hulkenberg in 2015. While competing for Force India, Hulkenberg raced at the Six Hours of Spa and Le Mans for Porsche alongside Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, winning the latter.

While no current F1 drivers will participate at Le Mans this year, there will be plenty of recent F1 talent on the grid, including 2023 Le Mans winner Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari), Nyck de Vries (Toyota), and Mick Schumacher who will be making his debut in the World Endurance Championship for Alpine.

“It’s fantastic for the Alpine endurance team to have Mick,” Ocon said of Schumacher joining the Alpine family. “I think he’s bringing a lot of experience, expertise, and he’s obviously a very talented driver in general and I really hope that they are going to be winning Le Mans this year.”

Ocon also mentioned his desire to get Schumacher back into F1, saying, “I’ll be supporting, cheering for them and I hope to see Mick in Formula 1 in the near future again.”

Alonso rues cost of Ocon crash, but pace is still there for Brazilian GP

Fernando Alonso believes his clash with Esteban Ocon cost him a chance of points in the Sprint, but Aston Martin’s pace bodes well for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Ocon was on a flying lap and passing Alonso – on a slow lap and to the outside of the …

Fernando Alonso believes his clash with Esteban Ocon cost him a chance of points in the Sprint, but Aston Martin’s pace bodes well for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Ocon was on a flying lap and passing Alonso — on a slow lap and to the outside of the track — at Turn 3 when the Frenchman had a snap of oversteer. The correction saw him run wide and hit Alonso’s front left wheel, causing Ocon to crash heavily and damaging the Aston Martin to the extent it couldn’t run again after the end of SQ1.

Starting the Sprint from 15th, Alonso climbed to 11th with some strong overtakes and says it shows more was possible with a clean day.

“Yes, it was [frustrating] because I think we had good pace,” Alonso said. “Now in the race, we saw that we were fast, so we lost a possibility to score a few points. But it is [what] it is. Better that it happened today and not in the main qualifying yesterday. So let’s see tomorrow in the race if we’re going to score big points.”

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The stewards investigated the Sprint Shootout collision and opted to take no further action against either driver, with Alonso feeling both were unlucky.

“I don’t think it could go either way,” the Spaniard said. “I think he lost the car, and unfortunately I was in the wrong place in the wrong moment. But without losing the car, you never go there. But you know, this is the way it is.”

While Alonso is confident the pace shown on Saturday bodes well for Sunday’s grand prix when he will start fourth behind teammate Lance Stroll, he says the psychological boost for Aston Martin could be just as important regardless of the weekend’s final result.

“It was promising,” he said. “Definitely we have to execute a good race tomorrow without any mistakes. Hopefully a good start with the strategy, and we can go through the first couple of laps without any incident, then let’s see the pace. If it’s enough to finish in the top five, top six, whatever, we will take it.

“I think especially after this race we have some kind of relief, some weight off the shoulders of some people, and going into the right direction is a good boost for everyone in the factory. We really needed this type of performance here in Brazil.

“If we had another weekend struggling, maybe that was a little bit worrying, but we always kept pragmatic and doing some tests, some experiments, even if they were painful, and hopefully we have a lot of data now to analyze everything.”

Russell, Ocon, Gasly hit with impeding penalties in Brazil

George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have all been handed two-place grid penalties for impeding other cars at the pit exit in qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The FIA had changed the regulations to mandate a maximum delta time …

George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have all been handed two-place grid penalties for impeding other cars at the pit exit in qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The FIA had changed the regulations to mandate a maximum delta time between Safety Car Line 2 — at the pit exit — and Safety Car Line 1 — at the pit entry — from the Singapore Grand Prix onwards to reduce the risks of drivers backing up in the final sector to create gaps in qualifying. This served to move the issue of cars slowing to the pit exit — as seen in Mexico last week — so the race director’s notes in Brazil made clear that any car going slowly in the pit lane had to move fully to the left to allow others to overtake if they wish.

However, with a long and narrow pit exit at Interlagos, there were multiple incidents of potential impeding and Russell, Ocon and Gasly all received the same grid penalty for preventing others from passing.

“[When] exiting the pits, preparing for an out lap, [the drivers in question] went slow to create a gap for a clear lap, but did not manage to stay completely to the left,” the stewards’ decision read. “As a result, following car(s) were not able to overtake, as intended by the Race Director’s instructions. This clearly violates the wording and the spirit of item 14 of the Race Director’s Event Notes.”

The penalties apply to the grand prix on Sunday — rather than the Sprint on Saturday — as the incidents occurred in qualifying for the main race. Russell was the highest-placed of the trio originally, so he drops from sixth to eighth on the grid. Ocon and Gasly had qualified next to each other and are demoted to 14th and 15th respectively.

Williams drivers, Stroll recovering after receiving heat-related medical attention

Both Williams drivers have been assessed and cleared by medical teams after needing treatment for heat-related issues following the Qatar Grand Prix. While Esteban Ocon was sick in his helmet early in the race, that was only revealed after the …

Both Williams drivers have been assessed and cleared by medical teams after needing treatment for heat-related issues following the Qatar Grand Prix.

While Esteban Ocon was sick in his helmet early in the race, that was only revealed after the checkered flag and so it was Logan Sargeant’s radio messages that highlighted the problems drivers were facing. Sargeant told his team he was feeling unwell but insisted he could continue before eventually retiring and needing to be helped from his car, and was visited by the FIA doctor for treatment.

“Following Logan’s retirement from the grand prix, he has been assessed and cleared by the medical team on-site after suffering from intense dehydration during the race weakened by having flu like symptoms earlier in the week,” Williams confirmed.

The end of the race saw multiple drivers needing help and to take time cooling their body temperatures, but Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were two who struggled to get out of their cars in parc ferme, with Albon needing to be taken to the medical center.

“Following the Qatar Grand Prix, Alex was taken to the medical centre to be treated for acute heat exposure,” Williams also said. “He has now been assessed and cleared by the medical team.”

Stroll nearly collapsed after climbing out of his car and stumbled to a nearby ambulance for aid, but was able to return to carry out media duties and told Sky Sports he was passing out in certain corners.

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“Frustrated — we finished ninth but then two track limit penalties put us 11th, so it’s annoying that such a hard race, physically and just grinding out there, we didn’t come out with any points,” Stroll said.

“It’s ridiculous. These temperatures… Everything goes blurry. The last 25-30 laps was just blurry in the high-speed corners, blood pressure dropping and just passing out basically in the car in the high-speed corners with high G-forces.

“And then the curbs now are painted because they were worried about punctures with these high-loaded G-force corners and the tires. They painted the curbs to make the track even narrower, so you’re reliant just on your visual references to be outside of the track and what that is. But the last 20-25 laps you can’t really see anything because you’re just fainting as you go through those corners.

“It’s really a shame with such a hard fought race we only got 11th, because we finished ninth, started 17th and the car felt good today. And I felt like we had good pace and drove a good race but just super hard.”

Ocon would have been happy with a top 10 in Monaco

Esteban Ocon would have settled for a top 10 result in the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of the race weekend, leaving him overjoyed with his first podium since his victory in Hungary two years ago. A stunning qualifying lap had Ocon sitting on provisional …

Esteban Ocon would have settled for a top 10 result in the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of the race weekend, leaving him overjoyed with his first podium since his victory in Hungary two years ago.

A stunning qualifying lap had Ocon sitting on provisional pole position at one stage before lining up third after Charles Leclerc’s penalty on Saturday. Ocon held onto that position throughout the first part of the race before negotiating wet weather – benefiting from George Russell’s mistake immediately after making a pit stop – to finish third on the iconic street circuit.

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“I’m a little bit on my cloud still,” Ocon said. “You know, before the weekend, if you told us that we are going to be in the top 10, we would have been happy. It would have been a strong weekend. But we are not in the top 10, we are not in the top five, we are on the podium this weekend here in Monaco.

“That shows really that we never stopped believing. We had a difficult start to the season but from the first session, I felt strong in the car, felt confident at the wheel. I was able to push, session after sessions, closer to the limit than I’m usually doing in Monaco. That allowed me to do the lap I did (in qualifying), which is obviously 90 per cent of the job – normally – in Monaco. But it was not really the case (in the race)!

“It has been a little bit of a harder race. We held that podium for a while, we had it secure, but I got a touch from Carlos (Sainz) at one stage, got damage on the on the back of the car. And then the rain shuffled everything again, and we had to choose to take the inters at the right time. And we did so.

“And from there on I was under a huge amount of pressure from Lewis. We seem to always be the two fighting together when the conditions are like that! So we know each other well in those conditions. And until the last lap, he was pushing flat-out.

“He was quicker in the wet section from Turn 5 to Turn 8, and I was quicker on the dry sections. It’s been an incredibly tough race to get under control but the reward is immense. So, I’m extremely pleased.”

And Ocon admits he was surprised by the pace of the Alpine in Monaco, so is even more keen to see what the team can produce at a very different circuit in Barcelona this weekend coming.

“I think, as soon as we put it down from the simulator days, really to all the practice sessions, we’ve been improving step-by-step and never stopping doing it. And it’s been a very different weekend compared to my usual Monaco weekends, where I was not afraid to go close to the walls very early.

“Yeah, it extremely surprised us for sure. I think we should keep our feet on the ground at the moment. Obviously, we’re on the podium here, we will enjoy all together. And I want to thank all the team, obviously Enstone, Viry, the team on-site here.

“That podium – not win, not yet – is all for them. But Barcelona is going to be a very different characteristic. A track that everyone knows and a good test for us to see where we are exactly.”

FIA to reconsider parc ferme procedures after Ocon near miss

The FIA will reconsider its parc ferme procedures following a stewards investigation into people blocking Esteban Ocon’s entry into the pit lane on the final lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Ocon had started the race from pit lane and run the first …

The FIA will reconsider its parc ferme procedures following a stewards investigation into people blocking Esteban Ocon’s entry into the pit lane on the final lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Ocon had started the race from pit lane and run the first 50 laps on a set of hard tires hoping that a late red flag or safety car would grant his a free or cheap route into the points.

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With no sign of an incident as Sergio Perez started the final lap, the Frenchman was called into he pits to concede defeat on the strategy and make his mandatory tire change.

But when he entered pit lane, having navigated the entry chicane at more than 100 miles per hour, he was greeted by a crowd of people, most of whom appeared to be photographers, spilling into the fast lane and blocking his access.

They managed to dive out of the way of the car once they realized Ocon was still racing, avoiding a potentially dire collision, and Ocon took his pit stop.

The FIA is responsible for maintaining safety in pit lane and for securing the parc ferme area, and after the end of the race the stewards requested a representative of the governing body attend a hearing in relation to the incident.

In a judgement issued shortly afterwards, the stewards said the FIA would be required to “take immediate steps to reconsider these procedures and protocols with the relevant stakeholders (including FOM, the teams and the FIA) to ensure that this situation does not occur again”.

“The stewards heard from the FIA representatives and determined that the relevant representatives took steps to set up the parc ferme area and also permitted media and other personnel to gather in the start of the pit lane and the pit wall during the last lap of the race while the pit lane was open and before the final pit stop of (Ocon),” the stewards wrote in their ruling.

“We noted that it was not unusual for the representatives to allow such persons into the pit lane just before the end of the race, in the usual course of preparation for parc ferme and the podium ceremony. However, in this case there was one driver that had to pit in the last lap and this created a very dangerous situation for those that were in the pit lane at the time.

“We considered that it was fortunate that there were no serious consequences on account of what happened today.

“We stressed that the requirements of ensuring a safe and orderly event are paramount. This was acknowledged by the FIA team.”

Speaking before the ruling, Ocon said he wanted to see action at the next race to avoid the possibility of a repeat.

“We can’t wait for anything, it’s clear,” he said. “You need to wait until all the cars are past the checkered flag and ensure there is no racing in the pit lane any more until you start prepping the podium.

“It’s not a mystery, it’s very simple.

“I don’t understand why we’re starting to prep the podium and prep the ceremony while we’re still racing. There’s one lap to go, there’s still people that didn’t pit.

“I’m arriving at 300 kilometers per hour, I’m braking very late, and I the people around. This is crazy.

“It could have been a big, big one today, and it’s definitely something that needs to be discussed. It’s something that we don’t want to see.”

The Frenchman, who finished 15th, said he needed to take evasive action to avoid hitting one of the bystanders.

“I had to lift off, I had to back off,” he explained. “I would not have liked to be the one in the middle there, at the speed we are arriving there, especially so close to the line.

“If I missed the braking point, it’s a big disaster.”

It’s the second time breach of the circuit perimeter in as many races, with Australian Grand Prix organizers having been summoned to the stewards following a spectator track invasion on the last lap of the race in Melbourne earlier this month.

Last year’s Australian Grand Prix also saw people enter the pit lane before the end of the race and shortly before Alex Albon’s last-lap pit stop.

Gasly escapes race ban while Ocon slams “suicidal” drivers on restart

Pierre Gasly escaped a race ban after the stewards did not penalize him for his collision with Esteban Ocon in the Australian Grand Prix, while his teammate called multiple drivers “suicidal” in their approach to restarts. A strong race from Gasly …

Pierre Gasly escaped a race ban after the stewards did not penalize him for his collision with Esteban Ocon in the Australian Grand Prix, while his teammate called multiple drivers “suicidal” in their approach to restarts.

A strong race from Gasly had him fighting for the podium but he ran wide at Turn 1 on the final restart when side-by-side with Carlos Sainz, who in turn tagged Fernando Alonso into a spin. When Gasly rejoined he drifted across the track into Ocon and both drivers were taken out of the race, prompting an investigation by the stewards.

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Gasly is just two penalty points away from the 12 required to trigger a race ban but no further action was taken after the stewards deemed it a first lap racing incident following discussions with both drivers.

Ocon himself was frustrated to be caught up in the incident but said he doesn’t hold blame against Gasly as he believes many drivers approached the restart with two laps remaining too aggressively.

“Before starting about the last lap crash, just thinking about the positives and just reflecting on everything that didn’t go our way,” Ocon said. “But that was out of our control, really. We had a mega start (initially), I gained three places. We decided to box on purpose to put the hard tire very early on. And obviously if there was no red flag just after that, we would have been like fourth or fifth. It would have been a very good first stint. So, that didn’t go our way.

“We lost everything that that we took from the red flag, then it was a very lonely race. I overtook the cars that had DRS so they were not without defense, it was very hard to to pass them and we did so. Then the pace was similar to the Ferraris and the Astons in front. So that was very promising.

“Obviously a very chaotic restart then honestly, it could have been any cars that I collided with. There was cars coming back on the track, obviously Pierre was one of them. But no hard feelings. He came and apologized and as I said, it could have been anyone.

“My tires were hot. I didn’t feel like it was very slippery. But what was tricky was the light being a little bit lower, we couldn’t really see so well. But some drivers were just suicidal a bit in Turn 1, like Nyck (de Vries) on the side. It was very close and obviously there’s a lot to gain at the time, but a little bit too much for some drivers.”

Sin pena ni gloria, Checo abandona GP de Hungría por accidente

Otro abandono para Red Bull al comienzo de la carrera, esta vez fue Checo Pérez que se vio involucrado en un accidente en la primera vuelta

Otro abandono para Red Bull al comienzo de la carrera, esta vez fue Checo Pérez que se vio involucrado en un accidente causado por Bottas y abandonó en la primera vuelta del GP de Hungría.

Todo parecía que comenzaba bien para el mexicano que comenzó quinto, pero se vino abajo en un momento, Checo ya estaba tercero al momento del incidente y tuvo que abandonar junto a muchos otros pilotos que dejaron abierta la puerta para cualquiera.

Foto vía © SIPA USA

El que aprovechó bien fue Esteban Ocon de Alpine que conquistó el GP de Hungría, su primera victoria en la Fórmula 1, así como Sebastian Vettel de Aston Martin que volvió al podio tras mucho tiempo, aunque ambos ya fue citado por los comisionados de la carrera por no seguir ciertos procedimientos.

Lewis Hamilton remontó muchas posiciones y se coló al podio para sumar puntos en el campeonato de pilotos y colocarse por primera vez como líder en la temporada. Max Verstappen finalizó en décimo.

Valtteri Bottas ya se disculpó con Checo Pérez, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris y Lance Stroll pues su maniobra ocasionó que todos ellos abandonaran, incluyendo al finlandés, en un atípico GP de Hungría.

Foto vía © SIPA USA

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