Penalties galore as Ocon's race collapses due to sanctions

Esteban Ocon was hoping for a points-scoring opening race in Bahrain, instead the Alpine driver's evening collapsed under the weight of a collection of bizarre penalties.

Qualifying among the top-ten on Saturday was half the job done for Ocon. But the Frenchman's troubles started as soon as he lined up on the grid.

Unbeknownst to Ocon, the stewards had noted that the Alpine's right front wheel was positioned slightly out of his ninth-place grid slot.

"Four cars were also ahead [of their grid slots]," he argued after the race.

"I was not the only one out of the line. I was the most forward, that’s clear. But not the only one. So that’s a frustrating one."

Ocon was well into his first stint when he was informed of a 5-second time penalty for the offence. A damaged front wing endplate incurred during the race's opening laps offered the team an opportunity to replace the element while also satisfying Ocon's grid slot sanction.

But according to Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer, a "system error" saw Ocon's crew spring into action after 4.6s - as measured by the stewards - to replace the car's front wing, or before the 5-second neutralization period had been completed.

"I think we were less than a half-second off before we started working on the car and that was just a timing issue," Szafnauer said.

"We have a system that counts down into the mechanics’ ears to tell them when we can start, and that was set [wrong] by four tenths of a second. So then it just spiralled out of control."

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Indeed, Ocon was subsequently hit by the stewards with a 10-second penalty for his team's operational error.

After serving that punishment, Ocon inadvertently released the pitlane speed limiter too soon, thus breaking the 80km/h limit by a mere 0.1km/h, which equated to another 5s time penalty!

"That’s for the driver," said Szafnauer. "He’s got a pitlane speed limiter and then when he believes he’s out of the pitlane he lifts off it and off you go.

"If you lift off just a little bit too early - you can do it on the way in too - you can get on it a little bit too late and you’re over."

Once again, Ocon was baffled by the steward's decision.

"I’ve been doing the pitlane speed limiter, the release and the entry, the same way for five years and then I got a penalty," he said.

"I’ve also been doing the same thing for the start position and all the way through last year I never had a penalty so all these things are new apparently. We need to get those right."

Ocon admitted that amid the multiple sanctions, frustration ensued and disrupted his focus, with Alpine eventually retiring its driver after 41 laps.

"I was trying to stay focused obviously, as much as I could," said Ocon, who spent his middle stint sparring for last with McLaren's Lando Norris.

"But you know once you get a 5s stop-and-go it’s already over.

“We are usually very good on these operational things, we pay a lot of attention to details to not get penalties but today everything seemed to go wrong so we need to analyse it and come back stronger," he added.

Szafnauer agreed that Alpine's operational errors on the day were not in keeping with the team's usual discipline and diligence. The American also took some consolation from Pierre Gasly's spirited drive from last on the grid to P9 at the checkered flag.

"It's very, very rare for this team to make those types of operational mistakes," he said.

"Starting early and working on the car, I’ve never seen that happen here before. We have good systems in place for that not to happen so I’m confident that won’t happen again.

"Esteban being out of position at the start, we’ll learn from that, that’ll never happen again.

"So I think operationally we can look forward to having smooth and trouble-free races.

"If that happens and Pierre [Gasly] qualifies where he can qualify, if we’ve got both of them in the top 10 positions, I think we’ll score plenty of points and then we’ll fight for that fourth place."

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