“Give My Man a Break”: Esteban Ocon’s Bizarre Penalty Attracts Backlash From Alpine F1 Fans

If there’s one man who wouldn’t want to remember the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, it’s none other than Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman who started the race in P9 with an expectation of points finished was dealt with a heavy blow. Ocon was slapped with not one or two, but three-five seconds time penalties for not starting the race from grid positions, not serving the penalty, and finally for speeding on the pitlane. As the stewards shared the penalties, angry Alpine fans took to social media to share their reactions.

Furthermore, to increase the pain for Ocon and Alpine fans, the Frenchman was further penalized with a ten seconds time penalty for not serving the time penalty during the first pit stop. Alpine decided to act cleverly, where they changed the damaged front wing as well as though they served the time penalty, FIA was ready to take none of it as the pit crew was not supposed to touch the car for five seconds, hence serving the time penalty.

To make things worse for the Alpine driver, the stewards noted Esteban Ocon speeding in the pitlane and slammed him with a further five seconds’ time penalty! What a painful day for the Alpine driver!

Fans react angrily as FIA penalized Esteban Ocon

As soon as the penalty was announced for the Alpine driver, angry fans took to Twitter to share their reactions. The Alpine fans were visibly frustrated and unhappy over the stewards’ decision.

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Given below are some of the reactions taken on this from Twitter:

This comes right after Ocon was served five seconds time, penalty at the same venue back in 2022. The Frenchman was penalized for making contact with the then-Haas driver, Mick Schumacher, during the second lap of the race. This shows that the opening desert race hasn’t been a good one when it comes to luck for the defensive Alpine driver.

After Ocon served all the time penalties, the Frenchman went down the order. In the end, he retired from the Bahrain race after 41 laps, whereas his teammate Pierre Gasly had an impressive run to finish his race in P9 after starting from P20.

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Do you think Esteban Ocon’s penalty was fair? If not, tell us why.