Pierre Gasly has urged Alpine Formula 1 team-mate Esteban Ocon to make “changes” to his racing conduct amid their opening-lap collision in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Alpine’s bid to rebound from a challenging beginning to the campaign continued in Monte Carlo as Gasly advanced through to Q3 and Ocon was on the fringes in 11th.
The Enstone-based squad was aiming to cash in on those promising starting positions in the race and Carlos Sainz’s puncture promoted both drivers up to the points.
However, Ocon strived to capitalise on the sister car being held up behind Alex Albon’s Williams ahead and dived to the inside at Portier, prompting contact on the exit.
Ocon’s car was sent airborne when the two touched and he retired from proceedings with terminal damage, while Gasly was fortunate that a red flag stoppage arrived.
Gasly was able to have his punctured tyre replaced before then managing to nurse the Medium compound to the end of the race to secure a valuable 10th-place result.
But the Frenchman was left unimpressed with his compatriot’s antics on the first lap, claiming that Alpine’s struggling predicament means it can’t afford such clashes.
“I was quite shocked and it was very unnecessary, and for the team I was just… We should never have such a situation, especially between team-mates,” Gasly said.
“I’m just sad, disappointed with the situation, and especially we had clear instructions before the race on what to do and whoever qualified ahead, the trailing car was supposed to help throughout the race with the strategy, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
“We definitely need to speak because we can’t afford, especially on a season like that, a point or two that might be crucial at the end of the year.
“We’ve just got to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Even with Sainz’s Ferrari being reinstated into third on the restart, Gasly has contended that Ocon’s absence in the race prevented the team from taking a better return.
“At that time we were P9 and P10, so there’s absolutely no reason to try or risk to get both cars out,” he added.
“You can’t really rewrite the story, so you’ll never know if things could have been differently, but for sure we were in a strong position as a team, especially with the two cars ahead of us, and I feel genuinely that I had the pace to try something and we could be quite smart. We had a different scenario planned in terms of strategy.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t work it that way, but we’ll never know.
“At the end of the day I think we did the best because after the incident I got a puncture on my Hard tire, restarted with the Medium tire.”
Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin laid the blame at Ocon’s door when he spoke to French television, with Ocon also conceding that he was at fault in his interviews.
Asked whether it made it easier to move on because there would be no lingering disagreement over who caused the accident, Gasly responded: “On that side, yes.
“On the other side, we’re still seeing a car that is damaged, that didn’t finish and potentially could be in the points.
“We came a couple of centimetres from having both cars in the wall. In the end, we got away with it and I’m pleased that we saw the finish line and we managed to get that point.
“We don’t want to see that and even at the end of the day we’ve got 1,200 people working behind us. They’re all working their ass off to give us the best car possible and they’re all sitting on watching the race on Sunday and they should not see such a situation. We’ll discuss it and we’ll do better.”
Gasly would not be drawn on whether the duo’s expiring contracts had influenced Ocon’s aggressiveness, but he has called on his team-mate to temper his approach.
“I don’t want to answer that,” he answered. “He’s a professional driver. You just know what to do and what not to do and even more with your team-mates.
“He’s a good driver. He’s a very good driver. He knows what he does so he just needs to make a change.”
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