Esteban Ocon was effectively handed a drive-through penalty during the Las Vegas Grand Prix when he was called in for a pit stop by his Alpine team without them being ready to serve his car.
The Frenchman had yet to pit compared to the other cars around him and was running in P5 behind Nico Hulkenberg, when the team told him to “box opposite” the Haas driver 11 laps into the race.
As Ocon made his way into the pit lane, the Alpine mechanics were still in the garage and not ready to serve his car in the pit box. Ocon assumed he missed his pit marker and was forced to stop again the following lap, losing him 12 seconds in the process.
It was a bizarre scenario that put Ocon on the back foot for the rest of the race, with him tumbling down to P17 at the chequered flag of the Las Vegas GP. Discussing what happened on The Race F1 podcast, journalist Edd Straw explained why it happened to Ocon.
Alpine team not ready to serve Esteban Ocon when call came through
Footage from the attempted pit stop showed that Ocon came into the pits and just had a single mechanic ready for his arrival. Ocon drove off and wasted time needing to pit again.
“In this particular scenario, Ocon was given a ‘box, opposite Hulkenberg’ call which means if Hulkenberg doesn’t pit you do pit and vice versa. Ocon followed that instruction because Hulkenberg stayed out, so he came in and drove down the pit lane and said he didn’t see the pit board,” said Straw.
“He didn’t see it because the crew weren’t out in the pit lane. The team said something went wrong, but from what I can make out normally the pit crew get a warning a certain number of seconds beforehand.
“Then there will be a confirmation one, and I presume they were on standby but didn’t get the final go-ahead. So either someone didn’t issue the call or there was some kind of technical problem.”
How it played out on Esteban Ocon’s team radio
Team radio transcripts from the incident appear to show Ocon was suffering from tyre degradation towards the end of the stint and wanted to pit.
His engineer, Josh Peckett, appeared to confirm they were ready for him in any scenario on the lap that he initially came in (Lap 11) but Ocon was left to drive through the pits.
| Driver | Engineer |
| Peckett: “Okay, Esteban, how are the tyres, please?” | |
| Ocon: “Degrading. A little more each lap.” | Peckett: “Copy that. Esteban, box this lap. Opposite Hulkenberg in front. Box this lap, opposite Hulkenberg in front.” |
| *Ocon pits but no mechanics waiting for him*
Peckett: “Okay, Esteban, I need you to clear errors, please. double-press ‘OK’.” |
|
| Ocon: “F—… what happened? I didn’t see the board?” | |
| Peckett: “It’s okay, mate. Just drive through. Drive through.” | |
| Ocon: “F—— hell…” | Peckett: “Okay mate. Okay. It’s alright. Settle down. So car behind Tsunoda, at the moment.” |
It was a disappointing end to Alpine’s weekend after a strong Sao Paulo GP, as the double non-points finish put him behind Haas in the Constructors’ standings.
Each spot can be worth approximately £8 million, meaning that could impact them at the end of the season in the prize money distribution.
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