A 'Sickening' Double Retirement for Alpine F1 as Ocon's Seat Breaks in Two

2023-07-23 15:36:31

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The “consequence” of a start in the soft belly of the peloton

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Alpine F1’s Hungarian Grand Prix didn’t get off to a great start with a double elimination in Q2, and it turned into a nightmare when a chain reaction, caused by a touchdown between Guanyu Zhou and Daniel Ricciardo, threw Esteban Ocon onto Pierre Gasly, causing the team’s two drivers to retire.

Ocon reveals that on landing after going over Gasly, the seat of his Alpine broke in two: “It’s ok so far hot. The seat broke in two with the impact, so it was violent when I fell back to the ground. I’ll be checked by my physio and by the doctors so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I sank completely into the car and thought it was the rear suspension that was broken because the car was handling very badly, obviously, after so much damage. But no, it was actually the seat that had broken, which changed my position.

“I’m disappointed to do so few laps, being hit at the first corner is the consequence of starting so far in the pack, everyone takes a lot of risks to gain places, but hey the race is not decided at the first corner so it’s a bit sad.

The Frenchman is aware of what happened at the start and admits his frustration: “We had plenty of room. I think at that point I would have taken the position, I would have gone around the car that was inside, it would have been tight with Pierre on the exit, but it would have been good.”

“Obviously Pierre was starting with the soft tire and so it was the objective for him to take a lot of positions at the start. But that was not the problem, the problem was the rear impact which made us both retire.

“The images are clear, it’s a double retirement for the team and it’s disgusting. We’ll do it again next week, we hope to be able to catch up and have a good last race before the break.”

Gasly had however taken “a very good start”

Pierre Gasly drew the same conclusion as his teammate after this frustrating start. He had however managed to gain several places and to brake on the outside of the first corner, not without going through the grass, and was taking advantage of a free track in front of him on the outside to continue to gain positions, when the other Alpine came to hit him.

“Of course, we got off to a very good start, I didn’t have a lot of room so I had to go over the grass but I was well positioned when braking at the first corner. But I don’t know if it was Zhou or Daniel who hit Esteban, who ended up on top of me and that broke the car” observes Gasly.

He admits the streak of bad luck is tiring: “Things don’t line up for us but hey, these are things that happen and we’re going to have to focus on Spa. We’re going to have to happen quickly this series of events that are happening to us at the moment.

In addition to this double retirement, Alpine must also return to the battle for the top 10 on a regular basis: “We have to keep working, I think that nobody is happy to fight for these positions. We are all competitors, we want to fight in front but we are not efficient enough, we showed it yesterday. “

“We have to find more performance and everyone is motivated to get out of this series, and I hope to get points for the team in the last race before the break, because it is more than unfortunate to end up with both cars stopped on the first lap.

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