Jacques Villeneuve weighs in on the Esteban Ocon-Alpine team order debacle

Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has weighed in on the entire Esteban Ocon-Alpine debacle, remarking that the driver had a role to play in it as well. The F1 Canadian GP was a feisty race for the French driver that saw him make his way through the field. He was P9 with three laps left.

There was further context to this as well. Esteban Ocon had been given the heavier chassis that race weekend while the lighter one went to his teammate Pierre Gasly. With just three laps left, Ocon was ahead of Gasly and en route to an impressive finish. It was at this time that he got the call from the team to switch places with his teammate. The stated objective was to give Gasly the opportunity to catch Daniel Ricciardo and pass him.

After first declining the team call, Esteban Ocon let Pierre Gasly by on the next lap. Ocon was, however, in for a rude shock when Gasly couldn't catch Ricciardo and Alpine told him that the places would not be swapped.

The driver was fuming after the race but Jacques Villeneuve felt that the driver intentionally waited a lap too long before letting Gasly pass. Talking about the incident on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, Villeneuve said:

"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. But he still let him by to say, ‘I was a team player’. So there’s a lot of thought process going in there.”

Esteban Ocon maintains he was a team player at Canada

Esteban Ocon was furious after what happened to him in the race. Even while talking to the media, it was quite obvious that he had still not calmed down.

The French driver continued to stress the point that he was being a team player when he let Gasly pass, even though the order made no sense whatsoever. Talking to the media, he said:

“I’ve been a team player and I’ve always respected the instructions that I’ve been given, always – it’s always been the case and I showed it once more today. But the nice guy doesn’t always pay off in Formula One and that is bothering me a lot.”

The entire Esteban Ocon-Alpine is certainly not close to its final legs at the moment. There are 15 races left, and both parties will be hoping that the whole operation goes ahead smoothly.