“We Are Not Robots”: Esteban Ocon Calls Out Abuse He Faced After Controversial Crash With Pierre Gasly

Ever since Esteban Ocon controversially collided with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, several reports have emerged that have criticized the former. Many of these reports have claimed that Ocon is not a good teammate. On going through the same, the 27-year-old has put out an emotional statement via his social media account. A snippet of his statement read,

“Of course, I have made honest mistakes. We are not robots. We are athletes pushing ourselves to the limit every day to achieve our dreams of winning races. F1 is a sport where emotions run high, and passions run deep. I see and feel this every weekend at the track and on social media…the good and the bad. But the misinformed statements and gross distortions that I have seen online in recent days about my ability to work with a team have been inaccurate, hurtful, and damaging“.

Ocon‘s clarification comes at a time when he has been the victim of immense social media criticism and abuse. Moreover, it is not just the fans and F1 experts that have seemingly issued harsh statements against the Frenchman.

Even Alpine team principal Bruno Famin slammed Ocon after the 27-year-old’s ambitious move on Gasly in Monaco. Although Ocon immediately apologized to his team after the incident, Famin claimed that he may take some harsh action against him.

This could also include benching the Frenchman for a race. As the team continues to add more pressure on Ocon in this fashion, some members of the F1 community have also voiced their support for the #31 driver following his emotional post on social media.

Lewis Hamilton’s ex-physio offers her support to Esteban Ocon

Lewis Hamilton’s former physio, Angela Cullen, is well aware of the stresses that an F1 driver faces. Having gone through the highs and lows alongside the seven-time F1 champion, Cullen also has an idea of how important it is to support a driver when they are going through mental anguish, just like Esteban Ocon is currently going through.

Therefore, within an hour of reading Ocon’s post, Cullen immediately offered her support to the Frenchman. She wrote, “Stand strong my friend”.

Alongside Cullen, several of the fans also voiced their support for Ocon, mentioning that he does not deserve the hate he has been receiving over the past few days. Meanwhile, in response to those reports that claimed that Alpine may bench him for the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix, the Frenchman confirmed that he will race in Montreal.