From having a pit stop earlier than anticipated to retiring his car on lap 29 due to an air consumption issue, Esteban Ocon’s Grand Prix weekend in Imola was short-lived despite new upgrades from the Haas team.
Ocon had a strong race start as he overtook two cars on the opening lap; however, after gaining a few positions, the Haas team made the call for an early pit stop, making him the first one to pit for new tyres, leaving him off the back but with lots of clean air.
Strategy Issues for Ocon at the F1 Imola GP
Initially, the undercut strategy appeared effective as he continued to gain positions. However, things changed when he lost race pace due to tyre degradation as Ocon explains.
“I had a good start, made a couple of positions. Then I got the call from the team to box. It was good initially because we made up time over the cars in front. But we picked up a lot of degradation from there, which is not really clear why.
“I will talk to the strategy guy now.I just came back from the track.”
When sharing what he thought about the early pit stop, Ocon expressed his confusion over the decision.
“I thought it was going to be a bit later, but they said, you know, box now, so I boxed.”
It may be that the team overestimated the benefits of an early pit stop that eventually backfired during the race.
Views on updates
Haas came into Imola with new updates to help with performance, with Ocon acknowledging the factory’s efforts.
“The factory has done good work with the updates. These are not our issues. We’re just fighting with a few consistency things across the car, across weekends. This is what we need to fix.”
While the updates are working, the issue lies in the consistency of the car. The unpredictability makes it confusing to decipher how well the car will behave on a certain track.
What’s next?
Looking forward to the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, the driver remains hopeful as he believes the team could bring some points if they have a “solid base and a healthy car.”
But also believes that with the weekend being a two-stop race, things could be a little different.
“Yeah, it’s going to be quite a new thing. Usually, you push hard, you try and clear people out of your first stop. And then you just control the pace from the second stop.
“But this time is going to be very different, so it’s exciting.”
Haas is currently sixth in the Constructors’ Championship but are looking more behind than in front thanks to Williams’ exceptional run of form lately.
Ocon highlights the inconsistency and issues the car brings from one weekend to the next, saying:
“Yeah, we’re just unfortunately too inconsistent and have too many issues recently.”
Currently, there is a 31-point gap keeping the team from achieving a top 5 position.
