Alpine F1 Honcho Plays Mediator to Avoid Esteban Ocon & Pierre Gasly’s Collision Stir Their Bad Blood

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Alpine Honcho has come out and opened up about the crash between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in an effort to make peace between the two drivers. Whilst Alpine may have lost a boatload of points, the Alpine honcho is more concerned about the understanding between its two drivers. Let’s find out how the Alpine Boss tackled the situation.

The mayhem towards the end of the Australian GP was a boon for teams like McLaren whereas a nightmare for many, including Alpine. Kevin Magnussen’s crash caused a red flag on Lap 55. With the race restarting on Lap 57, everybody wanted to capitalize on the opportunity. However, the tires were cold and did not provide much grip, leading to multiple accidents around the restart. In an unfortunate turn of events, both the Alpine’s ended up crashing into each other and hence retiring from the race. 

The Alpines were running in the Top 10 before the mayhem with Pierre Gasly P5 and Esteban Ocon P10. The crash meant both the Alpines retired and McLaren scored 12 points, dropping Alpine to 6th in the constructors behind McLaren. Regardless, the Alpine Team Principal has come out playing mediator between the two drivers.

Otmar Szafnauer believes none of the drivers are to be blamed for the crash and the team should learn from the incident. He suggests there was chaos and sometimes one does not have anywhere to go and ends up running into someone. 

According to speedcafe.com, Otmar Szafnauer said “It’s a shame that they came together. As far as trying to blame one or the other, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do; I think the right thing to do is learn from it.”

“There’s so much chaos there and you’ve got to make quick decisions.” Further adding, “Things happen in front of you where you have a decision of ‘I either run into this, run into this, or run into that,’ because we can’t avoid it.”

Also Read: “Relationship Is Already Crumbling”: Alpine’s Worst Nightmare Comes Alive as Gasly & Ocon’s Potential War Leaves F1 Fans Scared

The Alpine Honcho was not the only one trying to mediate things between the French drivers. Esteban Ocon came out breaking the silence about the crash after the race. The Frenchman refrained from putting his teammate under the gun and has forgiven him for the mistake. 

What is Esteban Ocon’s take on the crash?

Esteban Ocon withdrew the blame from Pierre Gasly to mediate things between the two. Ocon believes it could have been anyone crashing into him as the restart was so chaotic with so much going around everywhere. He mentioned that it, unfortunately, ended up being Gasly, but there were no hard feelings between the two as Gasly came and apologized to him. 

According to SkySports, Esteban Ocon said “After the chaotic restart it could have been anyone I collided with – a lot of cars were going off,” further adding “It ended up being Pierre not leaving me much space but no hard feelings. He came and apologized and, as I say, it could have been anyone.”

Watch this story: Most Dangerous Crashes in F1 History

What do you make of the crash between the two Alpines?