Starting from pit lane, Esteban Ocon didn’t have quite the same recovery in the F1 São Paulo GP as his former F3 rival Max Verstappen. Where the Dutchman managed to get to the podium, Ocon only managed to end up in the tail end of the Liam Lawson DRS-train in 12th. Not an unreasonable result from the rear, but his disappointment was justified, given the pace his team mate Ollie Bearman had.
Puncture adds to difficulties
Adding insult to injury, Ocon had to stop just as the VSC was retracted, costing him additional time. Without which he would have been in front of Lawson, he suspected.
“A lot of frustration,” Ocon reflects on the F1 São Paulo GP. “Because yes, we started in the pit lane, but we had the puncture just one lap after Max. And that puncture basically was exactly the time when the race resumed.
“I lost like, I don’t know, 10 seconds at the time and that’s what made all the difference. I would have finished in front of all those cars if that was the case.”
So a disappointing race for the Haas driver, who saw his team mate be one of the stand-out drivers in Interlagos.
“Yeah, extremely disappointed really, it’s just no luck really. Well, it’s been the first time now that we are dealing with [it], it’s just not aligning that well for us. But the positive that we can take from it is that the pace was okay in front of all those cars around.
“We would have been able to make progress, so yeah, I’m disappointed.”
Set-up one big puzzle
Ocon and his team found themselves in a bit of a pickle regarding the set-up for the F1 São Paulo GP. Qualifying was underwhelming as he ended up way behind team mate Bearman in Q1, resulting in early elimination. This prompted the team to start the Frenchman from pit lane, giving them the opportunity to change the setup. A move that did pay off, but also posed some new questions to answer, despite having a set-up “very similar” to his team mate.
“Yeah, we changed a few things,” Ocon explained. “I think for the race, a few things obviously settled down, very different to qualifying.
“There’s still a lot for us to fix and to improve, I think. Looking and digging with the engineers in quali, there’s a lot of things that for us don’t really make sense.”
So there is work to be done for Haas, but the one-time race winner stays focused and optimistic for the future.
“We will keep all united, to keep pushing forward, find the answers, and hopefully come back in a better way into the next race.
“But, yeah, it wasn’t our weekend.”
