Esteban Ocon fears a repeat of Canadian GP team orders for the rest of the season - "Trend that will continue until the end of the year"

Esteban Ocon wasn't a happy man when Alpine ordered him to swap places with Pierre Gasly at the recently concluded Canadian Grand Prix. Now, Ocon fears that Canada was not a one-off and that he could witness such team orders till the "end of the year."

While the race on Sunday was statistically a better race for Alpine, where two of its drivers finished the race with points, it certainly wasn't one for Esteban Ocon. This is because the Frenchman had to give up a place, as well as 'gift' a point to his teammate Gasly.

Later on, when asked about this, the French driver told Canal Plus, "Unfortunately, this is a trend that will continue until the end of the year. It’s not correct."

With this, was Ocon hinting that Gasly would have the upper hand since he is leaving the team at the end of this season? He said, "I give them the benefit of the doubt."

In Lap 67 of 70, Ocon's race engineer Josh Peckett asked the driver to swap with Gasly to allow the latter to chase Daniel Ricciardo. However, Ocon initially did not budge and showed no interest. A lap later, he let Gasly through to P8.

When Gasly failed to overtake Ricciardo, Ocon asked for the place back. But to his astonishment, Peckett said on the radio, "Esteban, the cars are not swapping places. Push to the end, please."

This enraged the 2021 Hungarian GP winner, who sarcastically said on the radio, "Yeah, amazing. Thank you, amazing, thank you." Following this, he pointed fingers at the team and stated that the team did not stand by their words.

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Jacques Villeneuve slammed Esteban Ocon over "team player" comments

F1 Grand Prix of Canada MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JUNE 09: Esteban Ocon of France driving the (31) Alpine F1 A524 Renault leads Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) Visa Cash App RB VCARB 01 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 09, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Former F1 driver and champion Jacques Villeneuve analyzed Esteban Ocon's statement about being a ''team player'', and he was not impressed. The Canadian former race car driver saw tactics at play from Ocon, which hindered Gasly's advance in Montreal.

According to Villeneuve, Ocon allowed Gasly to overtake very late, which was enough to kill Gasly's chance against Ricciardo. Notably, Alpine asked Ocon to swap places with three laps to go, but the latter completed the move in Lap 69 of 70.

Regarding this, Villeneuve said in a report published by Planet F1: "That wasn’t good, because we heard him in his comments, ‘I was a team player, I let him by, the team was wrong’ and so on, but he made sure that he waited long enough that it was too late for Gasly to go and attack."