Esteban Ocon claims ‘you need to kill me to retire’ after the physically taxing Qatar GP

Many drivers have protested against the inhumane conditions at the Qatar GP.

Esteban Ocon claims ‘you need to kill me to retire’ after the physically taxing Qatar GP

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon during the 2023 Qatar GP. (Via IMAGO)

The race at Qatar was maybe the most physically demanding race of the year. With temperatures quite easily reaching 50 degrees Celsius in the cockpit, many drivers claimed that they were on the verge of fainting throughout the entirety of the race. Williams’ Logan Sargeant stopped his car mid-way due to the extreme conditions. However, for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, retiring the car is not an option.

Ocon said it was one of the hardest races in his career. He started feeling sick around lap 15 and even threw up in his helmet, but he kept going. The track conditions were unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Like other drivers, he tried to cool off by directing air onto his face through his visor. Inside the car, it felt like“hell,” but he was determined to finish rather than give up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktcSS_q_jak&pp=ygUMZXN0ZWJhbiBvY29u

“I never felt something like that, it was so hot that I wanted to open the visor on the straight line because I had no air… honestly it was hell in there. Retiring is not an option! I was never going to do that. You need to kill me to retire,” said Ocon, as per RaceFans.

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Ocon’s difficult battle got him some well-deserved points in Qatar. The French driver finished P7 in the Grand Prix, which is a great improvement over his P9 finish at Suzuka and two consecutive DNFs at Monza and Singapore. The Alpine driver currently stands at P12 in the standings, two points behind his teammate Pierre Gasly.

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Pierre Gasly laments his three five-second penalties in Qatar

While Esteban Ocon managed to bag six points for the Alpine team in Qatar, Pierre Gasly could not contribute this weekend. He was penalized three times during the race which cost him 15 seconds of his time. While he finished P10, his final position turned out to be P12. Post-race, Gasly talked about his troubles during the race.

Alpine's Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly (via Formula1News.co.uk)

All of his time penalties were given due to track limit violations. Gasly claimed the race to be one of the hardest for him since his arrival in Formula One. He said that his engine was giving him a lot of trouble which deeply affected his performance. Gasly said that even though it was a few centimeters, he did cross the track limits and it cost him the race.

“We had some issues on the engine side which cost me quite a lot of performance throughout the whole race with the clipping. I was really giving everything inside the car trying to compensate it and probably just over-pushed and went beyond the track limits too many times, we are talking about a few centimeters,” said Gasly.

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