Ocon wasn’t happy after failing to get out of Q1
A frustrated Esteban Ocon was only 17th in qualifying at Zandvoort after a session that he described to his Alpine team as a disaster.
The Frenchman struggled for grip and a big snap of oversteer towards the end of his final lap in Q1 ensured that he didn’t make it out of the session.
In conversation with engineer Josh Beckett he said it was “the car was a disaster since the beginning of the weekend”.
When Beckett highlighted that he was four-tenths up and safe for Q2 before the Turn 10 snap Ocon added “I’m about to crash every corner. I cannot drive the car, I tell you. Please listen to me.”
Ocon revealed that he’d had a change of chassis since the last race in Belgium.
“I said yesterday that it was going to be a long weekend, if we were not finding what the issue of the car was,” he said when asked by this writer about his session.
“Since we’ve put the car down here, there’s a lack of grip. The car is not behaving as normal, and as it has done in the past.
“We had a good car in Spa, which was quite decent, which is hard enough to have already. But we changed everything, chassis, floor and a lot of components on the car.
“And since we put it here, it is not working. We have left the car the same from yesterday to today, and unfortunately, it is the same results as it was.
“So I couldn’t keep it on track how I was pushing, I was sideways and having snaps in most corners. And you cannot finish a lap with that amount of sliding, basically.”
Regarding the feisty radio chat he said: “We discussed very openly about it. But what Josh said at that moment, saying yes, but you were four-tenths down before you had the snap – yes, for sure.
“But I had three snaps before. So it is normal that we’re not having those snaps, because the tyres are over the roof. And you cannot finish a lap like that.”
Ocon conceded that it might be worth changing the set-up and starting from the pitlane.
“We’ll see what we decide,” he said. “I think it’s going to be important to take the opportunity to think about the future races, and try and understand also why it didn’t work.
“But yeah, today it was a very poor day. It looked like it was going to be from FP2, to be fair. Disappointed that we didn’t turn things around.”
In stark contrast to Ocon his team mate Pierre Gasly was pleasantly surprised to make it to Q3 and earn 10th place on the grid, before earning a spot from a penalty for Alex Albon.
“Our numbers were definitely worse than that,” said Gasly. “We expected to struggle to get to Q2and that’s why we went with three sets. Actually, we didn’t manage to get the last run.
“So we managed to get through on two. I think to get in that last stage and beat a Ferrari and a Mercedes to get to that Q3 was a very good surprise.
“And it was tough conditions out there, so we just tried to focus on ourselves, get some clean out laps, good track position, manage this wind, to put a strong lap together and that’s what we did. So very pleased.”
Adam Cooper F1 