Yahoo Autos Gasly wants Alpine discussions after Ocon defies ‘clear instructions’
Pierre Gasly says he was shocked by Esteban Ocon’s attempted move on him at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix and suggests it went against pre-race instructions given to them by Alpine.
Ocon attempted to pass Gasly down the inside of Portier on the opening lap but the angle into the corner meant he was unable to leave a car’s width on the exit and his left rear hit Gasly’s right front, launching Ocon into the air. While it was Ocon who retired, the stewards handed him what was converted into a five-place grid penalty at his next race for what they described as an “overly ambitious overtaking attempt”, and Gasly wants discussions with his teammate as a result.
“I was quite shocked and it was very unnecessary. We should never have such a situation, especially between teammates,” Gasly said. “I’m just sad, disappointed with the situation, and especially as we had clear instructions before the race on what to do and whoever qualified ahead, the trailing car was supposed to help throughout the race with the strategy, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
“We definitely need to speak because we can’t afford [collisions], especially in a season like this, a point or two that might be crucial at the end of the year. We’ve just got to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Elaborating on the pre-race discussions, Gasly claims Ocon was supposed to be helping ensure the lead Alpine could maximize its result, but says it’s not the first time the pair have been involved in incidents together.
“Honestly it was set in the strategy that whoever qualifies ahead will get the priority on the strategy and the guy behind will play a bit more of a support role. Obviously absolutely no risk on a track like that and really try to benefit from having the two cars in such a position.
“We know what’s happened and I think what’s most important for me is just to make sure that it doesn’t happen in the future. We came close already a couple of times, too many times, we discussed about it and we just need to be clear.”
Gasly went on to finish 10th after being able to take the restart following a red flag in his original position, but he says when the collision occurred Ocon risked both of them being able to score.
“At that time we were P9 and P10, so there’s absolutely no reason to try or risk to get both cars out,” Gasly said. “You can’t really rewrite the story, so you’ll never know if things could have been differently, but for sure we were in a strong position as a team, especially with the two cars ahead of us, and I feel genuinely that I had the pace to try something and we could be quite smart.
“We had a different scenario planned in terms of strategy. Unfortunately we couldn’t work it that way, but we’ll never know. At the end of the day I think we did the best we could because after the incident I got a puncture on my hard tire, restarted with the medium tires, and had to do 75 or 76 laps on medium, which wasn’t planned.
“It was just a very strange race with a very slow pace at the start, but to keep in mind the long game and making sure that the two Aston Martins behind me – with [Fernando] Alonso opening a free pit stop for [Lance] Stroll – so I had to keep some tires alive for the second part of the race in case Stroll would catch me back.
“There was quite a lot going on. I’m just happy for the team, we managed to get to the end and grab that point.”