Gasly-Ocon, question and answer. The Japanese Grand Prix left consequences at Alpine due to the request made by the French team to the former AlphaTauri driver, namely to let Esteban Ocon pass, giving him the ninth final place.
Gasly, annoyed by this request, let his teammate pass at the penultimate corner, then becoming the protagonist of a series of gestures immortalized by the camera car placed on the airscope of the A523 number 10 once it crossed the finish line.
At the end of the race Gasly vented his frustration for what happened on the last lap, stating that he had not understood the team order as he was the fastest Alpine driver in the race and, above all, not having spoken about that eventuality in the briefing that took place before the race.
Bruno Famin, Alpine’s interim team principal after Otmar Szafnauer’s departure, explained that Gasly had been sent through by Ocon to try to attack Alonso. Pierre did not succeed in his aim and, for this reason, the team handed the position back to Esteban.
According to Ocon, according to the words he released after the race to Motorsport.com, there was never any confusion regarding team orders. Instead, again in his opinion, the team was consistent.
“I have been in this team for 4 years and the rule has always been this. It was this when Ricciardo was there and it was also with Alonso. If a driver exchanges positions, so in this case I exchanged mine with Pierre, he must get the front position, overtaking the person in front of us, who was Fernando, in order to then be able to maintain the position that I gave up.”
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“Otherwise, as happened in this case, the position is returned to the teammate. It has always been like this. If I found myself on the other side [al posto di Gasly]of course, I would do the same.”
Ocon then went on to state that the argument given by Gasly regarding the alleged inadequacy of the team order given by Alpine did not matter in the situation in which it occurred.
“It’s something that isn’t relevant at all. You can be as fast as you want, if you don’t make the move for which the position was given to you it doesn’t make any sense. Before Pierre had the opportunity to attack Fernando, I was in front.”
“Obviously we will discuss it to see what we could have done better at team level. But if we look at what happened at the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix, it was Fernando himself who followed the rule. At Sochi 2020 it happened with Daniel.”
“It has always been a team order, a rule that I knew and that didn’t surprise me in being like this,” concluded the French Alpine driver.
#Ocon #responds #Gasly #rule #team #clear