Alpine adamant Ocon's wobbly rear wing was safe during Canadian GP
Alpine Formula 1 boss Otmar Szafnauer says that the Enstone team was confident that Esteban Ocon could finish the Canadian GP despite the unusual behaviour of his rear wing.
In the closing stages of the race, the rear-facing camera on Ocon's A523 showed the wing oscillating in dramatic fashion at high speed.
McLaren's Lando Norris, who was following the Alpine closely, made it clear that he viewed it as a safety issue.
The FIA's current policy in situations in which there is an issue with items such as loose bodywork is that the onus is on the team to decide whether or not it is safe to continue.
Alpine decided that it was and Ocon duly carried on to the flag to claim eighth place.
"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," said Szafnauer when asked about the wing by Motorsport.com
"It didn't fail. So it stayed on. We designed that wing and we manufacture it. So that failure mode was probably most familiar to us. And we were happy that it wasn't going to come off.
"We test for that in R&D, so we put it through those tests, just because of the way it's mounted, and we, therefore, see those types of modes and understand if it's going to come off or not.
"So we're happy that with all the testing that we do, it wasn't."
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523
Photo by: Patrick Vinet / Motorsport Images
Szafnauer confirmed that the team spoke to race control during the race.
"We talked about it, and the FIA came to us as well and said it looks like your rear wing's moving, and we looked at it and talked about it.
"We were confident that with a couple of laps left that it was going to be fine."
Ocon finished the race behind one-stopper Alex Albon having made two stops, and Szafnauer was adamant that the Frenchman would have finished ahead had they followed the same strategy.
"Williams did one last stop that we did," he said. "And it was difficult to predict if the tyre was going to make it to the end.
"And I think Williams had nothing to lose. Had they stopped, they wouldn't have been in the points. We did stop.
"And in the end, we're probably, I don't know, six to seven tenths of a lap quicker than him. With that seven-tenths and DRS and their strategy of low drag, we couldn't overtake them.
"Looking back at it now and just seeing what they did, we would have done the same and made it, and would have been a couple of places ahead."
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly's race was ruined by a tyre change just before a safety car gave a cheap stop to most of his rivals. He eventually finished 12th.
"Pierre was compromised because we pitted him early for clean air because he had good underlying pace, and then the safety car came out," said Szafnauer. "So once that happened with everyone pitting, and pitting in less time, his race was compromised."
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