Esteban Ocon has opened up on the bad condition he was in following a 42G crash during a practice session at the 2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
Ocon and Fernando Alonso racked up a total of 173 points over 2022 to help Alpine finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of McLaren.
For Ocon, it was an even stronger display. He beat Alonso by 11 points as the season came to a close.
However, it was also the season where Ocon suffered the most dangerous moment of his career to date.
In FP3 at the Miami GP, the Frenchman lost control into Turn 14 and collided with the concrete wall, sustaining a 42G impact.
Recently, Ocon opened up about the crash and how he continued through the race weekend despite experiencing some dangerous side effects.
“I’ve had some big crashes,” Ocon told Guillaume Pley on the YouTube channel Legend.
“Touch wood, those crashes have never been too violent, despite some of them exceeding 40G and nearly knocking me out.
“Sometimes my eyesight got blurry, or I had a headache for three, four days…
“I took 42G – for people who want to see that crash, it’s not that impressive.
“But I hit a concrete wall. That was in Miami, in FP3, in 2022. I went off, I hit the wall. I hit both my knees and could barely walk afterwards.”
He missed qualifying due to the incident; however, he was back behind the wheel of the Alpine for the race, where he finished eighth.
“I remember, the next morning I was in the shower and I collapsed, I lost my balance and fell, I was not well at all,” he continued.
“I managed, starting from last, to finish eighth in that race, I was peeing red. That was not great!”
The cost of competing
Ocon isn’t the only driver to risk their health after a high-speed crash to return to racing.
Max Verstappen also spoke about a series of concussion-related symptoms he faced in 2021 after his 51G impact at the British GP.
Months after the initial crash, the Dutchman divuldged about how he was struggling with blurred vision during the races, made worse by advertising boards and ‘undulating circuits’.
However, with a tight championship fight against Lewis Hamilton, the soon-to-be World Champion didn’t want to take time out of such a contentious season.
In 2024, Verstappen admitted that the symptoms had passed and he wasn’t willing to rehash it.
Verstappen equally justified his decision. “We are racing drivers. You deal with all sorts of stuff. Always, here and there, people have little injuries or whatever. Those things happen.”
There are many more examples, with Lance Stroll racing after his wrist injury in 2023, having to undergo a second surgery in 2025 before the Canadian Grand Prix.
During the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, multiple drivers experienced loss of vision in high-speed corners, nausea, and heat exhaustion.
Logan Sargeant retired from the race due to feeling unwell. However, the others suffering chose to stick out the dangerous conditions for the sake of the sport.
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