Manor Racing’s racing director Dave Ryan believes the team have let down Esteban Ocon since he made his Formula 1 debut at Spa-Francorchamps, with issues in all three races hampering the highly rated Frenchman, capped off by two slow pit stops in Singapore last weekend.
Ocon was compromised by a broken brake duct in his debut in Belgium, and then suffered two electrical failures in practice and qualifying at Monza, but his pit stops in Singapore were terrible – the first saw him stationary for around 75 seconds, with his second 15 seconds.
Ryan insists the team are looking into what went wrong during the stops at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, which left Ocon well adrift at the back of the pack.
“The procedures were wrong, but I’m not sure which one just yet, so we need to look at the video and be very sure ourselves, and then once we know that we can work on it,” said Ryan to Autosport.
“We had a problem getting the wheels on the car, and then we had to change to another set because we had a problem with the wheelnut.
“It was a case of one thing going into another really. It was one of those deals that was hard to stop once it started going wrong. But that shouldn’t be the case. We should be geared up to deal with things that come along in a certain way, and we weren’t in this case.”
Ryan is hopeful that Ocon, who has finished all three of his Grand Prix so far, will see his luck turnaround quickly, hopefully as soon as the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks time.
“Esteban is due a good turn,” added Ryan. “We didn’t have a good race in Monza with him, and then we let him down again in Singapore with our pit stops, which was just disappointing because his last stint, with his pace on the tyres, was really good.
“Quite clearly we’re not – I’m not – doing a good enough job in terms of making sure all our procedures and things are in place. So we need to look at that, we’ve all got to accept responsibility and just work on it.
“It’s not through lack of effort. The guys are doing plenty of practice, we’re working on it, but we’re not there. Everyone has to assume and responsibility. You can’t just sit there and say I told them. That’s not how it works.
“We’re a team and we work together. That’s what everyone else does, we’re no different, and we have to do the same thing.”
