1996 F1 champion Damon Hill has come to Esteban Ocon’s defense after the Frenchman has become a victim of massive online abuse recently. Following Ocon’s incident with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix, not only did fans slam the former for the collision but so did F1 experts. This led to Ocon putting out an emotional post on social media, for which he has received immense support.
After Ocon once again apologized for his collision with Gasly, Hill replied to the former’s post by putting up an Instagram story and writing, “Excellent words from an excellent driver. I’m just glad we didn’t have social when I was racing”.
— Business F1 (@BusinessF158116) June 1, 2024
Hill is not the only individual who voiced his support for Ocon. Even Lewis Hamilton’s former physio Angela Cullen urged the Frenchman to stay strong in these tough times. Ocon has been receiving such support because such were the emotions he expressed in his most recent post.
The 27-year-old wrote a lengthy post and a part of it read, “We are not robots. We are athletes pushing ourselves to the limit every day to achieve our dreams of winning races”.
In his post, Ocon again admitted that he was indeed at fault for attempting an ambitious move against Gasly. However, he believes that he is only human and, hence, he misjudged the space he had while attempting a move on his teammate.
Due to the collision, Ocon could not take any further part in the race. While Gasly fortunately escaped and went on to score his first points of the 2024 season, the Alpine team were far from happy with Ocon’s move on track.
Bruno Famin threatens a race ban for Esteban Ocon
After reviewing the incident between the two drivers, Alpine team principal Bruno Famin did not mince his words in slamming Ocon. Famin made it clear that the Frenchman could receive a race ban if he does not change his ways and become more of a ‘team player’.
Famin’s remarks came after several experts such as Martin Brundle also criticized the #31 driver for his ways. Brundle said, “It will cost Esteban [Ocon] dearly, because no top team, perhaps even no team, will encourage such mentality”.
Famin was particularly angry with Ocon as he almost hurt Alpine’s chances of securing a point at the Monaco GP. Since the French outfit has been struggling massively this season, every point matters for them.
As things stand, Alpine are currently ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with just two points. Since such are their struggles, they cannot afford both their drivers to fight each other and hurt the team’s chances of scoring even the slightest of points as all of them could be valuable come the end of the season.
