The 2024 Monaco Grand Prix will be remembered for three key events that all technically took place on the first lap of the race.
The first was Charles Leclerc getting a clean start from pole position and although he had to restart the race again, the likes of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz simply couldn’t stop him from finally winning his home Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were the subjects of the first crash of the race, with all three drivers forced to retire before reaching the Casino for the first time.
READ MORE: Martin Brundle shares who was at fault for Sergio Perez’s first lap crash at the Monaco Grand Prix
The final talking point that people didn’t notice until after the red flag was the intra-team collision between Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
A report from the German outlet Auto Motor und Sport has shared more details about the tense atmosphere that existed before the race and how that bled into the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix.
READ MORE: Alpine driver Esteban Ocon’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Esteban Ocon had a disagreement with senior Alpine staff before the Monaco Grand Prix
It’s not a huge surprise that Esteban Ocon’s time with Alpine will be coming to an end when the 2024 F1 season concludes.
The 27-year-old has been with the French outfit for five years after previous spells at Manor and Force India.
In that time, he’s achieved a single win in Hungary and a handful of podiums but he and the team have not made the progress expected of a works team in F1.
When Fernando Alonso announced his decision to leave the team in 2022, Ocon was expected to be paired with exciting rookie Oscar Piastri, only for McLaren to snatch the talented Australian from out underneath them.
In the end, Ocon was paired with childhood rival Pierre Gasly and it’s well known that they’ve not had the best relationship.
Any issues that generally stayed away from the track, however, they’ve clashed on several occasions including on the streets of Monaco.
After a very poor start to the year, Alpine were in their best position to score multiple points in Monte Carlo.
However, Ocon failed to hold position and his five down the inside of Portier ended in contact and damage that ruled him out of the race.
Despite Gasly scoring his first point of the season, all was not well behind the scenes at Alpine.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Alpine tensions came to the fore at the Monaco Grand Prix
The report from AMuS has shared more details about a difficult weekend for Alpine despite doubling their points tally for the season.
They suggest that Ocon had ‘already annoyed’ senior members of the staff at Alpine before the race in Monaco.
It’s claimed that during a strategy meeting before the Grand Prix, Ocon was asked to help Gasly secure tenth place and he ‘allegedly initially refused to do so’.
He then couldn’t turn down the chance to overtake him on the opening lap, picked up damage and a grid penalty for the race in Canada as a result.
Esteban Ocon insists he’s a team player at Alpine
Ocon may have started the race in Canada from the back of the grid but drove very well to eventually score another point.
However, Gasly was prioritised at the end of the race, with Ocon told to let him through with no guarantee of getting the place back.
Alpine want to tie Gasly down to a long-term deal and that might have played a part in their thinking but Ocon was understandably furious.
After the race, via F1, he said: “I got the instructions to let Pierre [Gasly] past one and a half lap or two laps to go, to catch Daniel [Ricciardo] who was two and a half seconds in front and too fast for us, so the call made no sense.
“But I’ve done my part of the job, which is being a team player.”
Proving he’s a team player is going to play a part in Ocon’s Formula 1 future as well.
Ocon is expected to join Haas in 2025 and potentially partner rookie Oliver Bearman and Ayao Komatsu will expect him to act like the senior driver in the partnership to help the teenager improve.
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