FIA and F1 apologize to Alpine driver for pitlane incident at 2023 Azerbaijan GP

The FIA and Formula 1 have given an apology to Alpine driver Esteban Ocon for the pitlane fiasco at the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

While Ocon was coming in to serve his mandatory pitstop in the last lap of the race, FIA had permitted the race organizers to prepare for the podium in the Parc Ferme. It was a very sketchy moment as the French driver avoided a cluster of people in the pitlane while traveling at around 80km/h.

Ocon has now disclosed that he's received an apology from the FIA and F1 for the incident, saying (via Sky Sports):

"The FIA has apologized and Formula 1. They assured us that this is not going to happen anymore. Thank God nothing happened and so all good from now. We are racing at the time. It's of course normal that there shouldn't be anyone in the pit lane until after we are racing like that.

Ocon added:

"These things are normally not going to happen, the FIA has assured us that they are making sure they are changing the protocol and making sure there is no one in the pit lane until the end, so I'm confident we will not see that anymore."

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"It worked, in fact, it overperformed a little bit, so that is a positive to take away from this weekend" - Alpine F1 Sporting Director

Reflecting on the race in Baku, where the team introduced upgrades, Alpine Sporting Director Alan Parmane stated that it was encouraging that new parts overperformed from their estimates, despite limited track time.

As per Motorsport.com, he said:

"Yes, we did get that thankfully. It worked, in fact, it overperformed a little bit, so that is a positive to take away from this weekend. And again, looks very much like we're going to continue that trend of just being able to put things on the car without really having to test them too much, which is such a huge benefit. That's something that we grew in confidence with last year, as more and more things come through."

He added:

"We've got something in Miami, something else in Imola, I'm not too sure where we are beyond that. But there's definitely another tenth coming and then another tenth, so there's good stuff coming in the pipeline and having that confidence that it'll work first time is great."