Esteban Ocon’s Fantastic Drive at Monaco
Esteban Ocon has been a driver since 2016, making his debut drive at the Belgian Grand Prix, replacing former driver, Rio Haryanto. As of recently, he has had a run of extremely challenging and inconsistent weekends, but this changed as he was one of the most benefited drivers during the harsh Monaco Grand Prix at the Circuit de Monaco. Even with so many trials during the weekend regarding multiple different drivers, the Haas driver has claimed points for the first time since the Bahrain Grand Prix back in April. Haas used different strategies to navigate the windy streets of the Monaco track, including the newly introduced two mandatory pit stops. This is for the tire management and has opened up more strategic choices.
Due to this new rule, every team has a different approach and strategy, but Ocon’s side of the garage executed a strategy focused on building a sturdy and strong qualifying performance. This landed him from eighth position up to seventh, which earned him six points for the team. Additionally, the improvement in placement and racing was boosted as Fernando Alonso retired his Aston Martin from the race. This helped the Haas driver’s pit stop on laps 16 and 28 to secure the points he desperately wanted. Ocon claims that the upcoming race in Barcelona will be a hard track to drive as it contains more downforce and engine bias. Even with such an intimidating weekend lurking about, he is currently enjoying his six points with pride.
Though Ocon earned his well-deserved points, his teammate Ollie Bearman, unfortunately, was granted a penalty as he went to pass Carlos Sainz during a red flag in FP2. This mistake earned him a 10-place grid penalty that pushed him to last place on the grid at the start of the race. Bearman explained that there wasn’t much change he could’ve enforced due to the new strategy the team wanted to try, which pitted him on the first and 17th lap. He made his way to 12th position, which is an extreme improvement. Overall, a huge congratulations to Ocon for his fantastic drive and earning his points in this challenging race.
