Ocon Subject To Heavy Criticism: "Stupid And Far Too Aggressive"
F1Friday, 31 May 2024 at 22:00
Updated at Saturday, 01 June 2024 at 10:42
Former F1 driver Christian Danner asserted he would definitely bench Esteban Ocon after his "stupid" move during the most recent race in Monaco.
At this point, Esteban Ocon is notorious for not getting along well with his teammates. The French driver has a history of collisions with them, and he added another during the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.
The French driver was out-qualified by his teammate Pierre Gasly and had to start from behind. Knowing that the first lap tends to be the only chance to overtake, Ocon sent a massive dive on his teammate down the inside into turn number 8.
He left Gasly no space on the exit of the corner, which resulted in a collision that almost destroyed the race for both Alpine cars. Christian Danner told Motorsport-Magazin.com:
"That was obviously stupid, far too aggressive, and I would, unfortunately, say: typical Ocon."
The worst part was that Alpine scored only one point this season and had an excellent chance to add at least one more in Monaco, and Ocon almost destroyed it.
"That doesn't work and is simply stupid. It really doesn't help and, for once, they were even relatively competitive so both were in a position to finish in the points. And jeopardising something like that is very counterproductive, very destructive towards the team."
Alpine team principal was very upset with the actions of his drivers and threatened he might make a difficult decision after the race at Circuit de Monaco.
This was interpreted as a possible benching of Ocon for the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix. No such decision has been publicly announced so far, but Danner suggested he wouldn't let the 27-year-old sit in his car for the next race.
"From that point of view, I wasn't surprised that Bruno Famin was really angry. As the boss, I actually have to say: 'My dear friend, you're sitting out a race and now Jack Doohan [Alpine reserve] is driving. Full stop'. Then Ocon will learn."
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