Esteban Ocon does not raise his head. After his accident at the Australian Grand Prix, in which he collided with his teammate, Pierre Gasleysent him against the wall, things have not gone better in Azerbaijan.
In qualifying on Friday he was not able to get past Q2, marking the twelfth fastest time. The same happened with the ‘sprint shootout’, that is to say, the classification for the sprint race, in which the French driver failed to find the rhythm and could not get past thirteenth position, qualifying behind the McLaren of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Ocon has not managed to find the rhythm throughout the weekend, which has resulted in repeated complaints to the team via radio. After qualifying for the sprint race, the French driver met with his engineers and made a drastic decision: radically change the car’s settings.
This decision means the disqualification from the two qualifying sessions for breaking the parc fermé rule, which prevents the teams from modifying the car once the classification has been disputed, for which the Frenchman will start from the ‘pit lane’ in both racesleaving him with few options to reach the point zone.
More problems for Alpine
Esteban Ocon has not been the only one to have problems in the French team. his partner, Pierre Gasleyhas not been able to find the rhythm either, qualifying in the penultimate position both Friday and Saturday. In fact, in qualifying for the sprint race he ended up crashing into the protections.
These poor results from Alpine come after otmar szafnauer, sports director of the French team, assured that he saw himself fighting for second place in the constructors’ world championship. He sure that the poor performance of his team at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was not in his plans.
