– Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon broke the golden rule of motorsport last Sunday in Spa: Do not collide with your teammate! But that’s what happened to both of them on the first lap in Belgium when they clashed in Turn 12. Worse still: both cars suffered damage.
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“That was definitely not ideal,” Ocon laments. “That’s not what we want, because we’re already struggling to have the necessary pace to get into the points.”
According to the Frenchman, the collision was unfortunate: “Honestly, it wasn’t even a proper duel,” he says. Ocon was behind Nico Hülkenberg on the inside of the corner when Bearman shot past him on the outside left.
Bearman reported on the radio that he was stuck in fourth gear. “Oli had problems with his gear coming out of the corner,” Ocon also describes. “We were driving three abreast, trying to avoid him. He was a slow-moving obstacle.”
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“I was on the inside, Nico was there. Oli was actually a bit further back. I braked early to let Nico through. I was there on the inside. At the last second, I saw Oli coming there and we collided. It’s really very unfortunate,” he describes.
In the collision, Bearman’s right rear wheel and Ocon’s left front wheel touched, causing a puncture for both, with Ocon also going off into the gravel two corners later.
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For Haas, the race naturally started quite unluckily, and in the end, with positions 14 and 17, they were far from possible points.
Team boss Ayao Komatsu therefore gave both drivers a dressing down after the race: “It was a very direct conversation,” says Ocon. “Ayao told us what he wanted to say. It definitely must not happen again.”
Komatsu himself says that in the conversation, as usual, he wanted to hear the views of both drivers to then present his own. What is it? “I don’t think I need to share that here,” he waves off. His credo is clear: “We just have to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
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“My interest is, of course: No matter the reason, it simply must not happen again. Period,” says the Japanese.
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