Does anyone else think the fallout from the Ocon incident is way overblown? Yeah it was a dumb move but losing his seat over it is ridiculous, especially as he's been the better driver of the 2 so far this season.

Edited May 29, 20241 yr by Dobbo

If it were an isolated incident I'd think it was very harsh but Ocon has been colliding unnecessarily with teammates (Alonso, Perez, Gasly) and rivals (Verstappen in Brazil springs to mind) for years without learning anything by his mistakes. He disobeyed explicit team instructions on Sunday, as he has done frequently before and has a 5 place grid penalty for his next race, effectively ruining their chances of a decent result in Canada before the weekend has started.

 

He's only been marginally better than Gasly in the races this year and very much looks like he's the destabilising influence in the team. You have to wonder whether he was a factor in the loss of both Alonso and Piastri, I'm not convinced but it's a possibility. Alpine have understandably lost patience with him and decided he needs to sit on the naughty step for a while. He's not a team player and he's not a good enough driver to get away with it forever.

 

 

On balance I say it's a reasonable decision. Frankly, I'd like to see more teams take a harder line with errant drivers. There's plenty of potential talent waiting for a chance and too many on the grid that are there because they're seen as a safe option, benching him for a race with demonstrate Alpine's disappointment in him and allow them to test another driver under race conditions. It's a win for Alpine all round.

 

 

But at the moment it remains a rumour and that may be enough for Alpine to make their point.

Edited May 29, 20241 yr by Severin

In general working environments something like that would be punished

 

I do think it’s slightly overblown but then I’m comparing it to reckless or poor drivers (K-Mag, Stroll, Sargent)

 

In a way I kind of hope they do do it, as it’d be a reminder that drivers should not be able to just do what they want without consequence

I mean I'm all for giving new blood a rare chance, we saw how well Lawson and Bearman performed in their unexpected opportunities. I just think it's a bit too kneejerk...

I also think it's an over-reaction

especially since he's been doing it for ages and Alpine never had an issue before and always supported him rather than Alonso for instance

 

Ocon has always been Alpine's protected child so I'd be very surprised if they kick him out now

Im not sure it’s an overreaction because it feels like this is coming to the end of a long process of unhappiness with his attitude towards his teammates

but why they never had an issue before? Alonso was complaining about him for ages and ages and ages and Alpine was acting like Ocon was the #1 and Alonso didn't matter at all

You can only give someone a pass or benefit of the doubt for so long. Patience always runs out eventually

Ocon is out

 

 

 

…at the end of the year. Alpine won’t be extending his contract. Big change as prior to Monaco the noise was the team wanted to keep its line up unchanged. And alpine announced it in a „mutual agreement“ yeah boy got the sack

Interesting... I'm fully on board with more shake-ups in the driver market. Ocon will likely have options going forwards (Haas, Audi, Merc for a year before Kimi?) as he's still a good enough driver to be in F1, but I can see why you'd get rid - he's not so good to be worth the baggage and issues.

Being dropped once in your career is a setback but twice is pretty damning. Can't see Merc touching him now so he'll probably end up at Williams if anywhere.

Seems a bit of a shame as Esteban is nowhere near the worst driver, even with his disregard for team mates

 

Can only see him going to a back of the pack team though

oh my I wasn't expecting that, what an over-reaction

I could see Merc being an option. Toto is still very much involved with him and a short term deal in the likely event of missing out on Verstappen or Sainz leaves him as an option until Antonelli is ready

Perez staying for 2 years at RBR

Meh

Disappointed with that decision.

 

Yes he has shown he can be a #2 driver and pick up points on some occasions. But emphasis on the 'some'.

 

Yuki deserved a promotion in my opinion.

 

Still I suppose it ain't as bad as the one-sided pairings (Alonso & Stroll, Albon & Sargant etc)

Yuki is a stroppy toddler and should be dropped

Yuki is a stroppy toddler and should be dropped

 

He is a stroppy toddler but then so was Max!

 

And Yuki has shown genuine pace this year

 

The new rules announced today definitely lok to be a step in the right direction, especially with the binning of DRS. Whilst they haven't quite gone the way of embracing the far superior Push to Pass system, it nearly there.

 

X & Y Aero looks interesting too, but the big win is cars getting smaller and lighter finally.

 

 

 

And personally I'm happy to see Tsunoda staying next year but I would have liked to see what he can do in the Red Bull, he's arguably in the 2-3 most improved drivers on the grid in the last couple of years, whereas others appear to be going backwards.