Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were both left fuming after their Alpine Formula 1 team kept them in the garage at the end of Q1 in Hungary.
Before the red flag for Sergio Perez’s accident they were in 10th and 12th respectively, and seemingly set to progress to Q2.
The team didn’t think that lap times would improve on a damp track after the resumption, but the track dried quickly, and as rivals went faster the two drivers found themselves bumped down to 19th and 20th.
Ocon was especially frustrated as the call came after an equally disappointing Silverstone weekend, and on a day when tricky conditions created a clear opportunity for the team.
“We were 10th when we were on track,” said Ocon when asked by formu1a.uno about the session.
“I’m pretty sure we outperformed the pace of the car in these conditions. We thought we were going to be, 17th/18th, or 16th maybe at best, this session. So we were going all-in, obviously, for Q1.
“But we were 10th, so it was better than what we’re expecting. So we’ve done the right job up until now. But we were not out there when the conditions were at best, and it’s been two weekends in a row that we do these strategy mistakes.”
“Three years ago, we were doing the right ones. Today, I don’t know what we do wrong, but it’s clearly not good enough, especially with the level of car performance that we have.”
“We need to be doing things perfectly. And today we were going to be able to go through to Q2.”
Ocon conceded that the fact that DRS was not allowed for the last part of qualifying, in effect creating a 0.4s penalty for all drivers, may have distracted Alpine.
“The DRS was disabled,” said the Alpine driver “So that’s probably one of the topics that put the team a little bit out of thinking we are going to go out and improve.”
He stressed that staying in the garage was a team decision. “As a strategy we have in place, an improving track will always be a team call, and a track getting worse will always be a driver call, because obviously we have the crossover lap time, so it’s quite clear.”
“You know what tyres are best, you know what conditions the track is running in. So that’s something we’ve put in since 2020, and it’s been working, every time since. But today it hasn’t worked.”
Ocon said it was hard for a driver sitting in the car in the pit garage to judge what is going on with the weather.
“From where you’re sitting in the cockpit, narrow down with the screen in front, trying to think about everything, we need to rely on each other, and we need to rely better,” he said.
“I tried to remove the screen once, I put it back in, because then I need to see the cars, what they are doing on track. I’m strapped in. I’m thinking about the aero balance.”
“I’m thinking about what’s the strategy going to be forward ahead, the brake balance for turn one, trying to see what the other cars are saying, what the other cars are doing in terms of line, in case it’s damp somewhere.
“Today, yeah, the call was strict, and the call was, we don’t go out. It was pretty sure. So I trusted the team. But probably things need to be different for future.”
Gasly was equally frustrated by events in Q1.
“It was a mistake,” he said. “So not good. We had the conversation with the team, they told me they wanted to stay in. I wanted to go out. But apparently there were too many cars in the pitlane.
“So we need to review what we what we’ve done, but conditions like this are the ones we’ve got to capitalise on.” said the Alpine drive
“In these conditions, it’s not car performance related. It’s just about putting the lap when it matters, and we were not on track when everybody at the end was improving, and that’s the mistake. So I think regardless of the performance, that was the one thing we missed.”
