The change in Ocon: He's lovely but then becomes a monster when he puts his helmet on

Jan 25, 2024

The verdict of Martin Brundle

Former teammates Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso were involved in an intense battle during the Spanish Grand Prix, with the Frenchman criticised for almost causing a collision.

When there were 15 laps to go, Alonso had new tyres and was about to overtake the Alpine driver on the straight, but Ocon shifted his car and forced Alonso to pull over to the right of the track.

The Spaniard still completed the overtake, and joked that it wasn't too difficult when speaking with the media afterwards, but Ocon has been criticised for his dangerous driving.

Former driver and current commentator Martin Brundle called out the move immediately during the Sky Sports commentary.

"That's too late, you can't do that," he said of Ocon's attempt to defend the overtake.

"You have to place your car earlier than that.

"Ocon is the loveliest young man, but when he wears a crash helmet he becomes a bit of a monster."

These two drivers were both at Alpine between 2021 and 2022, even though Alonso helped Ocon achieve a memorable victory in the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, his first in the sport, they had a few clashes towards the end of their partnership.

Alonso often got on the team radio to complain about his younger teammate towards the end of 2022.

Now, with Alonso having moved to Aston Martin, they're in different cars and the Spaniard has had a much more successful start to the current season.

Ocon, meanwhile, played down the incident during Sunday's race when speaking with the media afterwards.

"It was a good fight Fernando, as usual, but he was too fast today," he said.

"It was impossible for me to keep him behind. I tried for two laps, and then I had to let him go."