Ocon calls out "suicidal" F1 driving standards in Australian GP
Esteban Ocon says his shunt in the 2023 Australian Grand Prix could have been caused by any number of "suicidal" Formula 1 drivers rather than blaming Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.
In the climax to a chaotic and controversially handled race, Gasly had lined up fifth for the second red flag restart but locked up into Turn 1 to avoid clipping Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.
That forced him over the run-off and as he rejoined alongside Ocon, who restarted in 10th, Gasly drifted over the track to the exit wall to initiate the contact that wiped out both cars.
Despite the race being halted again, which allowed other drivers caught up in an incident-strewn restart to reclaim their previous positions, the Alpines were too heavily damaged to continue.
The incident between Gasly and Ocon is under investigation. Gasly is two penalty points away from a race ban, so a penalty could force him to miss the next race in Azerbaijan.
But Ocon has eased the pressure on Gasly, who sought out his team-mate to apologise, by saying there are "no hard feelings" and that any number of drivers could have created the crash.
His take was: "Obviously a very chaotic restart then honestly, it could have been any cars that I collided with.
"There were cars coming back on the track, obviously Pierre was one of them. But no hard feelings.
"He came and apologised and as I said, it could have been anyone."
Ocon did not spare the rest of the grid, however, calling out the driving standards at the final restart when the delayed proceedings created low-light conditions that hampered visibility.
Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri AT04, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
He called Nyck de Vries "suicidal" into the first corner, although Ocon might have been mistaken since it was the other AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda that lunged up his inside into Turn 1. De Vries was further back and tagged by the remaining Williams of Logan Sargeant.
Ocon continued: "My tyres were hot. I didn't feel like it was very slippery. But what was tricky was a little bit the light being lower, we couldn't really see so well.
"But some drivers just suicidal a bit in Turn 1, like Nyck on the inside. It was very close and obviously there's a lot to gain at the time, but a little bit too much for some drivers."
Gasly only took one question from the immediate post-race print media pen, commenting that he was too "disappointed to say anything".
He said: "All I'm going to say is that today we didn't expect to be fighting one Ferrari and to have Fernando and [Lewis] Hamilton in my side for the majority of the race.
"This was unexpected, but I felt very comfortable in the car.
"So that's really positive, then after about the end of the race, nothing to mention about the red flag in the restart.
"I'm just so disappointed to say anything for now just looking at these guys finishing the race."
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