During the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon was heavily penalized for repeatedly breaching the track limits. He was given four penalties, out of which were two ten-second and two five-second penalties. From there on, a plethora of memes came out under the label of ’10 seconds penalty for Esteban Ocon’. However, Ocon doesn’t mind talking about it anymore despite the memes reminding him of a tough race as he recently revealed during a Q&A video on Alpine’s official YouTube channel.
These memes have become extremely popular among the F1 community. They are used in the most random scenarios possible. From F1-related situations to events outside the sport, fans on social media have resorted to using the meme almost everywhere.
New Austria penalties dropped 🚨
Tsunoda – 5 seconds
Sainz – 10 seconds
Hamilton – 10 seconds
Gasly – 10 seconds
Albon – 10 seconds
Sargeant – 10 seconds
De Vries – 15 seconds
Ocon – 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/N3Fol2Dejs— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 2, 2023
Ocon getting upset or disheartened about this would not surprise anyone. However, to the surprise of many, Ocon does not seem to care about what others say about him. He also doesn’t mind people making fun of his performances.
Ocon does not mind people using his name for memes
During the latest video released by Alpine’s official YouTube channel, Ocon answered some of the questions he got on Reddit. While he was at it, the first question that the Alpine driver got was, “Have you seen the ’10 sec penalty for Ocon’ memes?”
Answering this, the 26-year-old said, “Yes, I’ve seen it in my desperation. Yeah [it] obviously comes from a not-so-great moments. I mean it’s obviously you know something you guys have created. And it’s actually quite funny if you think about it so yeah I don’t take it too badly.”
Ocon has been fairly unlucky throughout the season, with penalties and reliability issues plaguing his performances. His poor luck continued in Singapore, as he was forced to retire due to mechanical issues once again.
Esteban Ocon faced yet another hurdle in Singapore
At the Singapore GP, Esteban Ocon was having a decent run along with his teammate Pierre Gasly after a long time. However, his joyous run soon came to an end after he suffered a technical issue.
In lap 43, Ocon pulled up to the side of the track as a reliability issue slowed him down. With that, he not only lost a great chance to add points to his tally but also failed to help Alpine close the gap to McLaren in their battle in the constructors” standings.
As Ocon had a DNF, he lost out on a grandstand finish to the Grand Prix that saw four drivers chase right at the last lap, until George Russell crashed. All in all, the 2023 Singapore GP will be a race Esteban Ocon will long to forget.
