Esteban Ocon was forced to make an unplanned pit stop at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix
Feature Image: Alpine
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Alpine’s Esteban Ocon started the Australian Grand Prix from 15th on the grid. By lap 7 he had moved up to 11th, and by lap 8 had managed to reach 8th position.
On lap 9, the Frenchman come into the pits for a tyre change. Nothing out of the ordinary, given the similar strategies being employed across the field. However, a visor tear-off then managed to lodge itself in the Alpine’s air duct. This caused an overheating issue that scuppered the team’s plans.
Fighting For Points
At that time, Ocon was battling it out with Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg. The team were forced to bring Ocon back into the pits for a second stop just 7 laps later. The team had to fit used hard tyres in a third stop on lap 42 in order to get their driver to the end of the race.
Ocon finished in 16th, behind Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu – both of whom had their own pit stop woes throughout the race.
Disappointment, But A Step Forward
“Before the tear-off we were fighting with Kevin, Alex, and I was in front of Nico,” said Ocon. “So we were on for possible points, from ninth to 11th, I think that would have been where we finished today.”
He continued “On the first lap, I got a tear-off in my mirror, that was the first thing. And then a couple of laps later, it’s not the same tear-off, it’s another one that goes in my brake duct.”
“The whole rear of the car was going to burn, if we didn’t stop. It obviously was the safe thing to do. Maybe keeping going would have made us retire, we will never know.”
Despite missing out on points, Ocon believes that Alpine have made good progress in Melbourne, acknowledging the efforts that the team made in the setup of the car.
“I think that race has been the strongest out of the three, definitely, in terms of pace and performance,” he said. “And it’s good. It means that it’s going in the right direction.”
“Everything’s relative, but relative to the first two, definitely it’s a step up. And the car felt better as well. So it’s not only that this track suits the car better – I don’t think it does. I think we set it up much better than [at] the other races.”