“Don’t Talk to Me About the Finish”: Esteban Ocon Resorts to NASCAR Analogy to Diffuse Civil War Rumors With Pierre Gasly

Last week at Talladega Super-speedway was a mess. However, the last lap crash did benefit Kyle Busch massively but the race report says; Utter Chaos!! And we cannot agree more. Talladega is famous for its dramatic finishes, but a place across the racing spectrum saw a similar fate a few weeks ago. Formula 1 went racing in Australia and came out horrified. F1 driver for Alpine, Esteban Ocon, has declared the same as a way of snubbing his teammate, Pierre Gasly.

Lap 57 of the Australian GP perhaps is the most chaotic man-made disaster of Formula 1 in recent times. A second restart saw cars wanting to make the most of the two laps that were left. And Pierre Gasly, already in a comfortable position, initiated an Alpine wipeout. This is probably what has made Ocon so unhappy.

Talking to estranged WTF1 hosts, Matt and Tommy Esteban made some revelations. Matt began with, “We had a crazy finish in Melbourne.” And a disgruntled Ocon stated, “Don’t talk to me about the finish.” And Matt, finishing his question, went on to ask, “What do you think about F1 trying to become a more entertaining show and is this the way to pursue the sport or focus more on the racing side?”

Esteban replied, “I think there is a happy between. What we saw in Melbourne was definitely too extreme. We were the ones that suffered. In a way, it brings opportunities as well.”

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The hosts stated, “You can’t win at the first corner when there’s only two laps to go. You kinda can win in the first corner and that is why everyone goes for it.” Resorting to an interesting analogy, Ocon stated, “That’s exactly the right phrase. We have seen it in NASCAR as well-where they freeze the race and they restart it for one more lap or something and they all went off and they all crashed. It will always happen in any category of racing. If you restart with just one lap.”

Esteban isn’t wrong. Last laps are synonymous with chaos. And this may seem the rift between foe-turned teammates widen.

Alpine TP gives an update post-Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly crash

While not many came out of the ruckus as winners, Alpine was the biggest loser. A total wipeout when they were in a comfortable points position. But what was impressive is the attitude back at their factory. They put their head down and got to work even before an official communication.

Talking to F1 Nation Podcast, the team TP Otmar said, “As soon as the accident happened the entire operations here at Enstone got together and didn’t wait for a report of ‘you know this is damaged that’s damaged we have to replace the suspension–or a nose or the front wing’ they could kinda see what happened in the straightaway and got on to diverting some of the manufacturing resource into making further spares but without losing the upgrades that are planned for Baku And that is a tremendous effort by everybody.”

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What are your prediction for Alpine this weekend considering Pierre Gasly hasn’t had an ideal Free Practice session?