"You can't see very well": Esteban Ocon explains why he got the starting grid penalty in the 2023 F1 Bahrain GP

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon explained the reason behind him getting the penalty at the start of the F1 Bahrain GP earlier this month.

The French driver was found guilty of positioning his car incorrectly in his grid slot during the start of the race. He was penalized by the race stewards for his infringement with a five-second penalty, which he did not serve properly during his pit stops, resulting in further penalties. The 26-year-old eventually retired from the race.

Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP, Esteban Ocon said:

"Yeah, I mean, we admit our mistakes. In Bahrain, we clearly got it wrong. There's a saying that when it rains, it pours. So that's what happened to us in, in Bahrain, and collectively, yeah, we are usually very good on operational things like that. And this time, we were not. So, I had a meeting with the FIA, just to understand what exactly happened. And it's clear now and we move forward."

"It was too much to the right basically. So that's where it could get confusing. Because it was too much to the right and over the line. Unfortunately, you can't see very well, in these cars, especially not when you're on the grid like that. You can see the yellow line as a reference. But yeah, that's up to me to fix that."

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"I'm obviously focusing on myself and you know, the job I have to do with the team" - Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon said that despite his tumultuous start to the season, he and the team were determined for a strong showing at the Saudi Arabian GP.

He told Sportskeeda's Niharika Ghorpade:

"Well, I'm obviously focusing on myself and you know, the job I have to do with the team, in a way that we have to develop this car, understand the issues that we have, and I'm very focused on doing that. So I'm doing you know, the same job that I was doing last year, but obviously, yes, we are together with Pierre on most of the things that we do.

"And at the moment, it is going really well. We hope we can keep working the way we are at the moment. There are some interesting topics when we are in meetings and we are discovering things every time that we are together at the factory and on track. So, yeah, it's quite interesting, so hopefully, it can keep going that way."

Esteban Ocon and Alpine will be hoping for a better race in Jeddah, a track where the Frenchman has had good results in his last few visits. Ocon finished in P6 at the Saudi Arabian GP last season, while finishing fourth in 2021.