Pierre Gasly Shifts Blame on Teammate After Esteban Ocon Drops ‘Nice Guy’ Act

Mercedes’ rise with its P3 and P4 finishes and Red Bull’s penalty for letting Sergio Perez drive an unsafe car on the tracks are indeed the most discussed events from the Canadian GP. However, there was some internal conflict in Alpine that the viewers might have missed. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were both running behind Daniel Ricciardo at one point in the race. As the Australian captured the 8th spot, Ocon, who was right behind the VCARB racer, could not manage to overtake him. His teammate Gasly was confident that he could, thus, Alpine decided to ask the Frenchmen to switch places, allowing Pierre to give the Honey Badger a good chase.

However, Esteban Ocon did not budge from his position, rejecting the command center’s orders to swap places with Gasly. He offered to obey in case his teammate promised to give back his position after overtaking Daniel Ricciardo. In the end, the Perth native took away the four points that came with the P8 spot. And guess what Pierre Gasly was left fuming about when his teammate stalled a decision that could have helped him?

Pierre Gasly calls Alpine’s Canada situation a “shame”

Having lost a precious eighth spot because of cribbing with his teammate, Pierre Gasly was obviously upset after the Canadian GP. Even though he ended the race within the top 10, he had wanted more. AMuS quoted Gasly speaking on this, “There were two points on the table that we could have fought for. It’s a shame that the swap of places wasn’t made immediately when the team announced it.” Alpine is currently in 8th place on the Constructors’ Championship with just 5 points, and they have a 2-point difference with Haas. Had Gasly overtaken Ricciardo and gotten the 8th place, Alpine could have gone above Haas in the rankings. Thus, the two points that the Frenchman missed out on were precious to the team.

The Frenchman also outlined how things played out at the end of the race which led to his failure to overtake Ricciardo. He said, “Unfortunately, Esteban needed two laps to change places. During this time, Ricciardo had built up a two-second lead.” Obviously, overcoming a 2-second-long lead became impossible for Gasly, especially because the Aussie was on fresher tires. This led to Pierre Gasly ending the race in ninth place with a huge grudge against teammate Esteban Ocon. However, Ocon was not bothered about how he allegedly botched up his team’s Canadian GP outing.

Esteban Ocon dismisses talks of Canadian GP

When approached to speak on what happened at the Canadian GP, Ocon said, “I don’t want to comment on that. I don’t want to talk about Canada anymore. That is behind us. I am now concentrating entirely on Barcelona.” Previously, he had said in the post-race interviews that he had done his duty as a “nice guy” for Alpine by giving up his position to Pierre Gasly.

However, Esteban Ocon had the upper hand over his teammate at the Canadian GP. Still, he could not overtake Ricciardo who was running in front of him. And all evidence shows that he should have let Pierre Gasly pass him. Then, Gasly could have crossed Ricciardo and scored more points for Alpine. By switching the places too late, Ocon defied team orders. Also, he soured his relationship with his teammate. Moreover, this was not the first instance of a conflict between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Long before the Frenchmen became teammates at Alpine, they were friends as junior racing drivers in Normandy. But during one of the races, Gasly had made a questionable overtake maneuver on Ocon which led to the dissolution of their friendship and also his disqualification. Do you think the two of them have moved past that incident or is their current conflict a result of long-suppressed anger? Let us know in the comments below.