Esteban Ocon knew his fight wasn’t with Piastri and McLaren in Spain
Esteban Ocon told Oscar Piastri “don’t try anything silly” at the start of the Spanish GP because he was not planning to keep the McLaren driver behind.
Ocon and Piastri started in eighth and ninth places, with the Australian having failed to set a time in Q3 due to track limits and a off-track moment.
Given that Lando Norris was on pole with the other McLaren Ocon accepted that there was no point in trying to hold up the potentially much faster Piastri.
At the start Piastri duly went round the outside at Turn 3, with Ocon backing off slightly to make it easier for the Australian.
“I told him I was going to let him go anyway, because he was going to be quicker than us the whole race,” said Ocon when asked by this writer about the pass. “I said, ‘Don’t try anything silly at the start. I’ll let you go afterwards.’
“And, yeah, that was not our fight today. It was not with him. It I thought was not going to be with Sergio [Perez], but he was close. So maybe we need to rethink who we are fighting next time.”
Ocon eventually finished 10th, having also been passed by Perez’s three-stopping Red Bull in the latter stages.
The Frenchman reported during the race that his Alpine was lacking grip and was “all over the place”.
He believed after the race that the car might have suffered some damage, although it’s understood that the team detected only a minor downforce loss.
“We need to investigate if that is the case,” said Ocon. “We picked up some debris or something, because there was no contact.
“It was such a quiet race, there was no fighting. I was just falling back the whole time. So, yeah, very positive day for us, because on those kinds of days earlier in the year, we would have been last, not inside the points.
“Clearly the car was super hard to drive, a lot of sliding, a lot of oversteer, and not where we wanted to be.”
Asked how early in the race the problems started Ocon said: “To be honest, it never felt great. I don’t know from when it was exactly, but there is clearly something that didn’t go right for us this race.
“We will dig into some of the differences that we saw, and hopefully come with some answers for next week, because it’s a triple header as well. So, yeah, it wasn’t a great one. It’s funny to say, but damage limitation in terms of result.”
The Alpine team was surprised by the pace of the A524 in Spain, with both Ocon and team mate Pierre Gasly making Q3 and scoring points.
“We have some clues,” said Ocon. “I think if it’s working in the next three, we should know why it is. But to be honest, it was very unexpected to be that competitive here. And, yeah, that’s still something that we need to make sure we understand.”
Adam Cooper F1 