Ocon's seat broke after crash at first corner

F1 News

Esteban Ocon after crash in Hungary GP
23 July 2023 at 20:43
Last update 24 July 2023 at 00:47
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  • Toby McLuskie

For the Alpine team, the Hungary GP was one to quickly forget. As early as the first corner, both drivers were involved in a crash, with Esteban Ocon even being launched. The impact was so hard that the Frenchman's seat broke in two, Ocon said in an interview with Motorsport.com.

Chaos at first corner

After a poor start for Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu, things went quite wrong entering the first corner. The Chinese driver hit Daniel Ricciardo's AlphaTauri, which in turn touched the Alpines. Esteban Ocon hit teammate Pierre Gasly on the rear wheel and was launched as a result, resulting in a hard landing. Although Ocon was initially still able to continue driving, a lap later he still parked his car in the pit box. The reason was notable.

"We just suffered a strike into Turn 1. It’s just a mistake from Zhou in the back. That led us to a massive hit," Ocon said. "I took off by, I don’t know, three metres, four metres on the rear wheels. When I landed, there was a big hit. My seat broke in pieces, in two parts. So that tells how much the impact was". Both Alpine drivers were, fortunately, able to get out unscathed afterwards, mechanics will have plenty of repair work to do on both sides of the garage in the coming days.