Esteban Ocon was unwilling to follow Alpine’s order to back off at the end of the Miami Grand Prix to minimise the impact of his team mate’s five-second penalty.
The team later decided the instruction had been “unnecessary”. But, in a subsequent twist, Fernando Alonso received a further penalty, which dropped him out of the points entirely.
Alonso was given his original five-second time penalty for a collision with Pierre Gasly. As the race drew to a close Alonso was leading a close train of cars comprising himself, Mick Schumacher, Ocon and Sebastian Vettel.
The sequence of events began with what may have been a cunning move by Alonso. On lap 52 he cut across the turn 14-15 chicane. While this could have been accidental, it may also have been an attempt to deprive Schumacher behind him of DRS.
Having cut the chicane, Alonso reached the detection line after turn 16 more than a second before Schumacher, who was therefore unable to use DRS. The stewards took note of Alonso’s failure to keep within the track limits.
Schumacher’s loss of DRS allowed Ocon to attack him at the next corner. The Haas driver repelled the Alpine, but Vettel came past the pair of them. As Schumacher attempted to retake the place at turn one they collided, allowing Ocon through.
Alonso’s race engineer Karel Loos updated him on the developments going on behind: “Schumacher and Vettel touched at turn one so they dropped back. Car behind is Esteban now, 2.6 seconds.”
“Can we open that gap?” Alonso asked. “Affirm, affirm,” Loos quickly replied.
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However when Ocon was told the team wanted him to back off and hold back the pursuing Alexander Albon, he was unwilling. “I’m getting overtaken if I back off,” he told them. Having seen how swiftly Schumacher came under attack when he lost the DRS, Ocon knew he might be just as vulnerable to Albon if he slowed down.
