The Alpine racer, Esteban Ocon, has described his Miami 2022 incident as potentially the most impactful crash he has faced throughout his Formula 1 journey.
The individual with one grand prix victory, who first participated in F1 back in 2016, addressed the topic during a detailed discussion with the French YouTube channel Legend. During the interview, Guillaume Pley brought up the topic of French rugby player Sebastien Chabal dealing with partial memory loss – a condition that could be related to multiple concussions experienced over the course of his athletic career.
“I’ve been involved in a few major incidents,” Ocon stated. “Fortunately, these haven’t been overly harsh, even though some exceeded 40G and nearly made me lose consciousness. On occasion, my vision blurred, or I had headaches lasting three to four days…”
Now a Haas competitor, Ocon highlighted the occurrence at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix as possibly the most significant one he’s experienced. At the time, as part of the Alpine team, he lost control of his vehicle on the Turn 13 corner, which resulted in a backward impact with the barrier.
“I endured 42G – for anyone curious about this crash, it may not seem particularly dramatic, but I did hit a concrete structure. This happened during FP3 in Miami in 2022. I went off-course and made contact with the barrier. My knees suffered, and I struggled to move afterwards,” the Frenchman remembered. He also took approximately one and a half minutes to get out of his car.
Marshals assist Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522, after a crash
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“I recall collapsing the following morning while in the shower. I became unsteady, lost my footing and fell, feeling quite unwell. Somehow, I managed to start from the back and secure eighth place in that event. My urine had a red color, which was concerning!”
Even with his strong performance, Ocon was among the quartet of racers who made their singular stop at the pit during an ideal virtual, then official, safety car deployment.
Previously, Ocon held eighth position, having an 11-second advantage over Lando Norris in 14th before the McLaren driver and Pierre Gasly collided, leading to race neutralization. In that group, only Lance Stroll still needed to visit the pit.
The year 2022 was Ocon’s most productive F1 season to date concerning the total points earned, reaching 92, which put him in eighth position in the championship – matching his placement from 2017 while at Force India. Then he scored 87 points across just 20 races.
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– The Autosport.com Team
