Esteban Ocon has reflected on his 2022 Miami crash as possibly the most violent accident he has experienced in his Formula 1 career.
The one-time grand prix winner, who made his F1 debut in 2016, tackled the subject in an in-depth talk with French YouTube channel Legend, when interviewer Guillaume Pley brought up French rugby player Sebastien Chabal suffering from partial amnesia – which may be linked to a number of concussions during his career.
“I’ve had some big crashes,” Ocon said. “Touch wood, those crashes have never been too violent, despite some of them exceeding 40G and nearly knocking me out. Sometimes my eyesight got blurry, or I had a headache for three, four days…”
Now a Haas driver, Ocon pointed to his accident at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix as potentially his worst ever. Representing Alpine at the time, he had lost control of his car in the Turn 13 curve, crashing backwards into the wall.
“I took 42G – for people who want to see that crash, it’s not that impressive, but I hit a concrete wall. That was in Miami, in FP3, in 2022. I went off, I hit the wall. I hit both my knees and could barely walk afterwards,” recounted the Frenchman, who did take over a minute and a half to extricate himself from his car.
Marshals assist Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522, after a crash
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“I remember, the next morning I was in the shower and I collapsed. I lost my balance and fell, I was not well at all. I managed, starting from last, to finish eighth in that race. I was peeing red, that was not great!”
Although he did perform a convincing drive, Ocon was among four drivers who executed their only pitstop of the race under a perfectly timed virtual, then full safety car.
Before that, Ocon was eighth, but had just an 11-second margin on 14th-placed Lando Norris before the McLaren driver collided with Pierre Gasly, causing the race to be neutralised – with only Lance Stroll yet to pit in that group.
2022 marked Ocon’s best-ever F1 season in terms of total points scored with 92, which awarded him eighth place in the championship – the same position as in 2017 at Force India, with 87 points in just 20 races.
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