Esteban Ocon has expanded upon the radio message he sent during the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix, asking Haas to warn Nico Hulkenberg about a lunge he was going to make.
In the thinner air that Mexico City provides, the Alpine cars were down on power but Ocon eventually scored one point for Alpine in the Mexican capital, with him eventually passing a Hulkenberg in the Haas that was not massively quick but was proving difficult to get by.
“The goal of that message was that they should warn Nico that he has to leave the space because I was gonna go,” said Ocon to the press after the race with a smile across his face.
“The only chance I had to overtake was basically to outbrake him, so it was gonna be a muscle move.”
Ocon eventually finished ninth at the 2023 Mexico City GP.
Hulkenberg was a tough obstacle
Ocon’s Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly had seen earlier in the race how hard it was proving to be to overtake the Haas of Hulkenberg, with the German doing a fine job of keeping those behind him at bay in a car that was low on race pace.
Indeed, Hulkenberg was fighting hard in his 200th F1 Grand Prix, and a number of drivers will likely have seen the rear of his Haas car in their sleep when they went to bed on Sunday night.
Eventually, Ocon got the job done, though, and will be pleased to have done so – especially after telegraphing the fact that he was going to make a do or die move by the sounds of things.
Gasly would follow him through in the closing stages, too, though ultimately it would not be a double points finish for the Enstone-based team, as they saw the likes of Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo finishing above them as well as the usual suspects.
