Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Monaco, 2024

Ocon didn’t respect team’s instructions in first-lap collision – Gasly

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In the round-up: Pierre Gasly says his team mate did not respect Alpine’s instructions to them at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix when they collided.

In brief

“These things should not happen” – Gasly

Gasly laid the blame for his first lap collision with his team mate at Esteban Ocon’s feet.

“These things should not happen,” said Gasly, who was hit by his team mate at Portier on the first lap. “There was a clear instruction from the team on what to do and what we were supposed to do and this wasn’t respected.

“I’m just glad we managed to get out of it with only some front wing damage and a couple of things,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “Luckily with the red flag we managed to repair but it shouldn’t happen.”

Ocon was given a five-place grid penalty for the next race for the collision. Gasly went on to score his first point of the season for finishing 10th.

“I’m very pleased and very relieved for the whole team, because we knew Monaco was a place where they will be an opportunity even if we struggled with the car since the start of the year,” said Gasly. “Monaco is quite special and we managed to seize the opportunity yesterday with that first Q3 and it was important to capitalise on that, and that’s what we did.

Ricciardo ‘pushed for two laps’ in grand prix

Daniel Ricciardo reckoned he was only able to drive flat-out for two laps in the Monaco Grand Prix. He spent much of the race stuck behind Fernando Alonso, who had to back off to help his team mate’s pit strategy at one stage.

“I looked at both Astons for really the whole race, but that’s no surprise, that’s how it is around here,” Ricciardo told the official F1 channel.

“I had two laps the whole race in clear air where I could push a little bit. They were enjoyable. The rest, there was a few with Alonso trying to obviously create something.

“So that was a little bit of fun, but not 70-something laps. That was, a little bit painful. So, not the Monaco I wanted, for sure.”

Williams strategy baffles Sargeant

Logan Sargeant admitted he was “not really sure” what his team’s strategy was for him in the Monaco Grand Prix. He was the only driver who did not switch to a different tyre compound while the race was suspended, forcing him to make a second pit stop later on.

“I have no idea about what actually went on behind the scenes,” he said after the race. “All I know is the struggle from inside the car.”

“I think with Alex [Albon] going on the hard, we probably should have split [strategies],” said Sargeant, who finished 15th. “It was a tricky race.

“Obviously being right stuck underneath Fernando and Danny for a long time, he was making a gap for Lance, I believe. And I just start to eat away at the tyres, and I really had nothing left on that hard tyre, the rear just completely degraded. From there I was just hanging on. Once I put the new tyre on it felt great.”

10-place grid drop for Duerksen

Joshua Duerksen will have a 10-place grid penalty for the next Formula 2 round as punishment for causing a collision with Zane Maloney. The AIX driver swerved into his rival as he left the pits late in the race, inadvertently triggering a Virtual Safety Car period which helped Zak O’Sullivan to victory.

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Comment of the day

Safety Car periods are having too great an impact on races, says MichaelN:

The Safety Car neutralisations need a rethink. As the fields get ever closer, either because of Balance of Performance like in sportscars, spec cars like in IndyCar and F2, or highly prescriptive regulations and development freezes like in F1, the impact of these Safety Car neutralisations becomes greater and greater. Especially when combined with mandatory pit stops that are allowed under said neutralisation.

Safety is important, but resetting the competition need not be an inevitable by-product.
MichaelN

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Graigchq!

On this day in motorsport

  • 40 years ago today Rick Mears dominated the Indianapolis 500, leading over half the race and winning by two laps from Roberto Guerrero

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24 comments on “Ocon didn’t respect team’s instructions in first-lap collision – Gasly”

  1. RandomMallard
    27th May 2024, 0:51

    I’m sure there’ll be an article on this by the morning, but the Indy 500 today was, as ever, everything Monaco wasn’t. A fantastic race from start to finish with a particularly incredible final stint.

  2. Spot on with that tweet Keith! Changing tyres under red flags is silly, especially on a first-lap restart with even the starting grid being kept, doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure that one out. The rule provides absolutely nothing but killing the strategy for the rest of the race.

    Congratulations to Newgarden! Now THAT was a race.

    1. I’ve been thinking of how to fix the red flag rule…

      What if you can change tires only for a like compound during a red flag? Would still give the ability to put fresher tires on, but not satisfy the two compound rule.

      1. Nitin, I think that is a sensible recommendation, allowing them to change like for like. It still potentially gives a team a free pit stop, to change a burnt out pair of softs for a brand new set, but still an improvement on what we have now.

    2. Tristan, I think that came about because of cars shedding loads of carbon fibre in collisions and the cars having possible slow punctures, so it made sense, if they red flagged the race, to let everyone change tyres too, to get rid of a potential problem. However, now we have this two compound rule, if they are using it to claim it as a mandatory tyre change, that seems to be an abuse of the rule.

  3. Does Lucas understand that viewers are watching the race, not driving the car themselves?

    I guess not as he also missed the drivers themselves being bored while driving the cars through Monaco.

  4. Gasly couldn’t be more right.
    Ocon simply risked throwing away everything for the team on the opening lap, especially as his attempt was doomed to fail from the get-go, given he was too far behind to get past without contact anyway, which he should’ve realized before even committing to the over-optimistic lunge.
    Good that he at least accepted full responsibility & apologized afterwards.

    Di Grassi’s point is valid.

    Regarding both Keith’s tweet & COTD: Once again, nothing wrong with allowing tyre changes during race suspensions, & disallowing them would bring unintended consequences regarding safety.
    Ironically, the 2011 race is when I remember people first complaining about this thing.

    1. especially as his attempt was doomed to fail from the get-go, given he was too far behind to get past without contact anyway

      So the standard for anyone to be able to overtake legally now is you need to fully clear the car you’re overtaking? Even if you get ahead at the apex?

      Ridiculous and inconsistent.

      I agree he did the wrong thing by the team, but the penalty makes no sense. If all F1 overtakes were held to that standard, it would be impossible to overtake anywhere, ever, other than DRS passes down a straight.

      1. He only got ahead at the apex by lunging from far back rather than because he was guaranteed beforehand to get ahead without contact, which is far from fair racing.

        1. There’s nothing at all wrong with making a lunge, as long as you can clear the corner, which he was able to. It’s not as if he was multiple car lengths behind or anything, he was right on Gasly’s rear wing.

          Gasly opened the door so wide only because he didn’t expect it at all from Ocon because of the team orders. That’s far worse racing than Ocon taking advantage of the situation.

      2. I think the problem here was that Gasly had nowhere to go an inevitably was going to be pushed into the wall. Even with 100% compliance, Gasly couldn’t back out of it and still make the corner, therefore Ocon caused an unavoidable accident.

        1. Possibly, looking at Strolls POV, as Ocon is passing the cone and pulling ahead it seems to me Gasly still has plenty of opportunity to lift and cede the position rather than try to hold on around the outside.

    2. Can’t agree with you on Di Grassi. He seems to think that when I’m bored out of my brains with a procession of cars that are in no way pushing their limit I somehow don’t understand that it’s really difficult to drive these cars on that speed on a narrow track. I understand perfectly fine that it is very difficult and exhilirating when you’re actually driving there, but I’m not. I’m sitting and watching the F1 equivalent of drying paint.

  5. On the red flag rule and tyre changes, surely all that is needed is a rule which says where tyre changes happen within the first x number of laps, owing to a red flag, this then does not count as one of the mandatory tyre changes for compound. With x being 3,5 or a certain percentage of the race.

    This would solve it wouldn’t it?

    1. Only in the specific Monaco scenario where tyres don’t matter and track position is everything, so drivers would never pit if they weren’t forced to (outside of weather changes). On a normal track, changing tyres under a red flag is still a huge advantage and potentially race-swinging depending on your luck of when you last pitted.

  6. Originally, chaging tyres after the red flag was a safety measure, in case somebody inadvertedly hits debris. But yep, the red flag situation needs a rethink. But…

    What would happen to Carlos Sainz? I mean, he of course should change tyres (puncture). If he starts in P3 with no need for changing tyres, he would be in a massive advantage.

    Maybe every driver is obliged to restart with the same set of tyres, but if they need to change them, they start from the pit lane?

    Then there is another problem. What if the red flag comes out just before Charles Leclerc makes his pit stop and everybody else behind has made it? Maybe he is leading by a landslide and the red flag ruins his race.

    I think the red flag situation doesn’t have a simple solution.

    1. Let’s be real, the red flag caused a very specific problem in a very specific situation around a very specific track. Normally, as you point out, there are good reasons for drivers being able to change their tyres under a red flag.

      To prevent this specific situation from happening again, just add a sub clause where if the race is red flagged within the first X laps, they still need to make a mandatory pit stop during the race.

  7. Yes, the cars are too big for Monaco, but what really ruined that is letting drivers change tyres under red flags. Without that there would have at least been some strategic interest.

    Letting them change tyres isn’t necessarily a problem in and of itself – the fact that it can be used as the one and only mandatory tyre change, however, can be seen as an issue.
    On this occasion, and so, so many others in modern F1 – the biggest issue was the teams and their strategic choices.
    That nobody went more aggressive on strategy is the biggest problem of the lot – and that is driven entirely by how impossible it is to overtake at this track in these cars.
    Even the F1 drivers were bored – need anymore be said about it?

  8. Renault deserve this and more.

    1. I am increasingly puzzled by why Renault/Alpine is in F1. Maybe this concorde agreement which guarantees revenue? Just going through the motions and collecting their share? Sporting wise they bring absolutely nothing to the table and their drivers are terrible and totally not interesting as characters. Andretti should buy their way in through this team.

      1. Ted Kravitz (Sky F1 UK) suggested this also (for Andretti buying the Renault/Alpine entry)

      2. They have no drivers signed for 2025 yet, which would fit well with that theory. Andretti would want to bring in their own.

  9. Lucas di Grassi:

    People that think “Monaco is boring” don’t understand what it takes to drive a racecar around those streets.
    Not even close…

    Drivers that think “Monaco is exciting” don’t understand how dull it is for those that are not behind the wheel to watch the procession. Not even close…

  10. The red flag rule should be that any cars making any changes, including tires, start from the pit exit, in the order that they would have restarted the race regardless of a standing start or running start.

Comments are closed.