Alpine had a nightmare Sunday in Budapest as Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly saw their races come to an end moments after the start of it.
Photo credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
Zhou Guanyu got a horrible start from a career-best P5 on the grid and got swallowed up by most of the pack on the run down towards the first corner.
The Chinese driver then compounded that with a big mistake by clattering into Daniel Ricciardo under braking. That would lead to the returning Australian hitting Ocon. In turn, Ocon came into contact with teammate Gasly and even briefly got airborne.
Ultimately Gasly and Ocon both retired with damage. Ricciardo and Zhou continued without any big damage. Unsurprisingly, the Alfa Romeo driver was penalised for causing all of it with a 5-second penalty. Although that seemed rather lenient considering the error he made.
Ocon explained post-race what happened from his point of view and how his seat broke in two.
“We just suffered a strike into Turn 1. It’s just a mistake from Zhou in the back. That led us to a massive hit.
“I took off by, I don’t know, three metres, four metres on the rear wheels. When I landed, there was a big hit.
“My seat broke in pieces, in two parts. So that tells how much the impact was.
“Unfortunately, both cars were out after that. Those are the consequences from racing at the back. People tend to take more risks. We knew it and we suffered from it today.
“We’re going to be racing next week and that’s the good thing because we can forget quickly this weekend.”
Team boss Otmar Szafnauer agreed with his driver that starting where they did left them vulnerable to what ultimately happened.
He also had explained how struggles on the medium tyre throughout the weekend put them in trouble during Q2.
“We started in 12th and 15th. When you start in the midfield like that, you saw what could happen.”
“There was nothing we could do. It was Zhou into Ricciardo into Esteban into Pierre — he went bowling.
Szafnauer had not seen the damage to Ocon’s seat, but he admits that it wasn’t a surprise to be told in broke in two.
“I did see he went airborne, so that doesn’t surprise me.
“They are lightweight seats made of carbon, so if you come down on them in the right way they split. It’s not a big thing.”
