Ocon Stands by Albon Overtake, Slams ‘Old-School’ F1 Restart Rule

Esteban Ocon has defended his contentious overtake on Alexander Albon during the Dutch Grand Prix and criticised the Formula 1 regulation that nullified the move at the subsequent standing restart.

Amid chaotic opening-lap conditions at a damp Zandvoort—where Max Verstappen crashed out and Gabriel Bortoleto spun—Ocon accelerated earlier than Albon at the end of a yellow-flag zone to claim 13th place moments after crossing the start/finish line.

“I’m sorry, but what Esteban did is crazy,” Albon protested over team radio. “He’s overtaking me in the middle of the crash.”

Although Williams did not raise the incident in post-race media sessions, Ocon addressed it directly, insisting the manoeuvre was legal.

“I overtook Alex, yeah, but I had the right, because it was green,” the Haas driver explained. He noted that the grid for the second start was determined by the running order at the end of the first lap, rendering his pass ineffective.

“What was a big shame is that you have to take all these risks,” Ocon added. “You’re playing with either getting a penalty or not. I didn’t get a penalty, but it was very tight, because I just passed him when it was green. And then they put you back at the race start.”

“It’s been like that forever, but… Really, if that was 20 metres earlier, then I was having the place. But we still raced, like, for one-and-a-half sectors. The red flag only came after Turn 5, you know? So, we passed sector one, and we were getting into sector two. So, I should have started in front of Alex – because that changed my race.”

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Ocon spent the opening stint stuck behind Albon and pitted early on lap 16 to find clear air. He was running 14th again when a power-unit failure forced his retirement on lap 53.

“After that, obviously, there’s a lot of things that maybe we could have done differently, with strategy, etc,” the Frenchman admitted. “Fernando [Alonso] did a really, really good strategy, I don’t think we could have done the same one without degradation. But there are things that we can look into to do a better job.”

Ocon remains adamant that a more current classification should have been used to set the grid for the second start.

“We are not going to believe that in Formula 1 we don’t have timing loops every 20 metres, you know? It’s a very old-school rule, really,” he continued.

“I said it on the radio, let’s not make Alex go in front again at the restart. Because that should not be the case. And for some reason I felt it, that they were going to put him in front again. They still take the line, which is like two kilometres back. It shouldn’t be like that, it should be the last moment.”

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