Esteban Ocon unlucky in Baku comes out with poor results
Forced to make several changes on his car under the Parc Ferme regime, Esteban Ocon couldn't do anything and remained stuck at the bottom of the rankings throughout the weekend.
Esteban Ocon experienced a true descent into hell during this weekend in Azerbaijan. His bad luck began on Friday during the only practice session. After the red flag caused by his teammate, Esteban Ocon stayed in the garage for checks as a precautionary measure against a potential hydraulic issue. He then had a decent qualifying session, narrowly missing out on reaching Q3. The French driver was set to start 12th on the grid for Sunday’s race. But that was before Alpine made changes under Parc Fermé regulations, forcing the Frenchman to start from the pit lane for both races: the Sprint and the Grand Prix.
A sprint that doesn’t count for anything
Aware that they were not going to score any points, Ocon and his team took advantage of the sprint race to carry out tests.
« It’s clear that we didn’t have a good race. We tried to gather as much information as possible, we made a lot of changes to the car between this morning’s qualifying session and the race. Since we wouldn’t score any points starting from the back, we tried something different. We saw how the soft tires performed, we have good data, we will regroup tonight and make the right decisions for tomorrow, he declared for Canal+ on Saturday evening.
A curious strategy
Optimistic that the improvements made by his team would allow him to catch up during the Grand Prix, it ultimately did not happen. Climbing up to ninth position, the Norman driver chose the strategy of waiting until the last moment to stop at the pits and change the hard tires he had been using since the beginning of the race. A safety car or any other unforeseen event that could have played in his favor never occurred. Forced to make his mandatory stop, he plummeted to 14th position, slowed down by photographers in the pit lane during his tire change, on the very last lap of the race. The Frenchman expressed his discontent, as he made it known his frustration with the presence of photographers in the pit lane upon reaching the stands in Baku.
After the nightmarish Australian Grand Prix, it’s another black weekend for Esteban Ocon and Alpine, who will try to make up for it next week in Miami.
