“It seems silly that they penalize us,” Esteban Ocon predicts a significant rise in grid-slot penalties in 2023

Esteban Ocon has recently talked about the grid box penalties that have come up in the first three races of the 2023 F1 season.

“It seems silly that they penalize us,” Esteban Ocon predicts a significant rise in grid-slot penalties in 2023

Esteban Ocon (Credits: Planet F1)

Esteban Ocon, the Alpine F1 driver, has shed light on the grid slot situation that has come into the limelight during the first three races of the 2023 F1 season. Ocon himself was on the receiving end of things in Bahrain when a penalty was imposed on him for parking his car wrongly at the start of the race. The Frenchman feels that despite there being quite a few penalties this season for grid slot positions, several more penalties are waiting in the pipeline during the whole season.

While talking about the concerning situation, Esteban Ocon said, “This year there will be a lot more cars that will be penalized, that’s for sure. It seems silly that they penalize us for these things, because they may seem trivial, but it’s because we can’t see anything from where we’re sitting. We worked a lot with my team to try and get lower in the car, to have a lower position in the cockpit. Obviously, I didn’t respect the rules and I received a penalty.”

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“This year the grid boxes were already 20 centimeters wider than last year and now they’ve added another 20. So it’s obvious that we’re going in the right direction. Starting too far ahead of your square is an advantage and we’ve always been penalized when we were too far forward. Previously we weren’t penalized if we were too far to the right or left, because normally that’s not an advantage.”

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Looking at the comments on the Frenchman, it is quite clear that despite the boxes being a bit wide in comparison to 2022, the FIA is imposing penalties for being a bit too far toward the left or right. In Ocon’s opinion, that does not warrant a penalty as it does not help gain any advantage over the other 19 drivers. Moreover, he feels that the cockpits in modern-day F1 cars do not allow the drivers to have a clear vision of where they are parking their cars on the grid.

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Esteban Ocon thinks that wider boxes will help drivers in 2023

Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon

While Esteban Ocon has admitted that there would be quite a few grid penalties coming the way of the 20 drivers during 2023, he has also, on the other hand, revealed that the wider grid boxes would most probably aid the drivers in parking their cars properly during Grand Prix starts. While talking about it he said, “Now the rule has changed and it’s obviously the same for everyone, so that’s what we need to pay attention to and the fact that the boxes are bigger should help us.”

The 2023 F1 season is only three races down and has already created a lot of controversies, while Esteban and Fernando Alonso came under the FIA’s microscope in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen, the reigning F1 World Champion was also for a brief period under their microscope after the end of the Australian GP.

Considering the chaotic note on which the race at Albert Park ended, do you think Esteban Ocon is right in his assessment of seeing several grid box penalties during the 2023 F1 season? Or do you believe that the F1 drivers by now must have learned their lessons? Unpredictable things happen almost all the time in F1 it would be fascinating to see whether another driver would fall prey to the grid box rules at the upcoming Azerbaijan GP.

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