Esteban Ocon, currently in his final races with Alpine, insists on equal treatment with Pierre Gasly. Ocon emphasized this once again in Barcelona, in the run-up to Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Ocon will finally, as he puts it, drive a lighter car than before. He claims that in recent weeks, he has been driving a heavier chassis than his teammate Gasly. This led to rumors that the team was favoring his compatriot. The reason being that Ocon is leaving, as the team and the driver recently announced. Gasly’s future remains uncertain, he may stay.
“But Bruno (team boss Famin) has promised us that we will receive equal treatment this season,” says Ocon. “That’s why I will be driving the lighter car this weekend.” He believes this will also be the case in Austria and Great Britain.
This season, Ocon has already made headlines with actions that literally and figuratively drove Gasly and his current team off the road. In the last race, in Canada, he refused at one point to let Gasly pass to open the hunt for Daniel Ricciardo’s eighth place. After several stern warnings via the radio, he finally did. “Two laps too late, Ricciardo had already scored a two-point gap,” Gasly sneered on Thursday.
Ocon did not respond to this later. The Frenchman did want to say that he has good hope for a seat in 2025. Only Haas offers him a chance. “Wherever it will be, I am mainly looking for a team where you feel supported as a driver.”
Read all about the 2024 Spanish GP here.
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