F1 2020: Esteban Ocon accepts apology from interviewer who called him a ‘French f***’

Esteban Ocon equalled his best ever result at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix but was dragged into a mess after an interviewer’s banter went wrong.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault teammate Esteban Ocon has accepted an apology from a TV interviewer who called him a “French f***” in an interview with McLaren’s Lando Norris.

It came after last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix when Ocon and Norris were locking in a controversy during qualifying.

Watch the 2020 Formula One™ Heineken Italian GP LIVE on KAYO. Every practice, qualifying session and race LIVE. New to Kayo? Get your free trial now & start streaming instantly >

The interviewer, Jack Plooij from Dutch outfit Ziggo Sport, questioned Norris after a slow out lap in qualifying in which Ocon tried to get Norris to overtake him in order to benefit from a tow, slowed right down.

Norris qualified in 10th ultimately before sealing seventh in the actual race.

“I was behind the Renaults (on the out lap), and they were going extremely slowly,” Norris said.

“You’re not allowed to really go that slow unnecessarily anyway and he did, so I had to pass them and therefore I just didn’t have any slipstream.

“It’s probably a grey area because you can do it in the last corner, but only because you’re in traffic and you have to leave a gap to the guy ahead. But in the middle of the racetrack … to go that slowly was just a bit dangerous. That’s all I‘ve got to say.”

Ricciardo and Ocon before the Belgian Grand Prix.

However, Plooij ran with it.

“That French f***, was driving dangerously you said? Did you speak already to him?” Plooij asked Norris to which the Brit could only muster a “whoa” with a nervous laugh before bantering his way through the rest of the interview.

But the comment has drawn some heat with the Dutch presenter taking to Twitter to make an apology to the 23-year-old Renault driver.

There was commotion about my question to @LandoNorris about @OconEsteban. Both are top athletes and i have never the intention to harm or abuse anybody!! @ZiggoSportF1 Apologies!! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

— Jack Plooij (@jackontracks) August 31, 2020

Ocon quickly replied “Apologies accepted mate!”

It’s not all that surprising that Ocon was happy for it to slide with the Renault team looking better than it has in some time.

Classy stuff from the young Frenchman.

The result at Sunday’s Grand Prix was the team’s best points tally from a race since returning as a constructor in 2016.

Ricciardo finished fourth with the race’s fastest lap, the first time since Robert Kubica in 2010 that Renault had a fastest lap, with Ocon finishing in fifth.

It has Renault confident with the team currently in sixth in the constructors championship but just nine point behind McLaren in third.

Asked if Renault could fight for a top three finish, Ocon believes the team can.

“Yeah, we can. There‘s 10 more races to go, so we are only in the beginning of the season, more or less,” he said.

“There‘s a long, long way of course, but it’s very nice to see that we are coming into that fight very nicely.

“We need to get consistent at scoring and we don‘t want to have a second Barcelona for sure.

“But when there are opportunities like this coming, what‘s important is to get the points and that’s what we’ve done this weekend.”

Ricciardo and Ocon have impressed in 2020.

Ricciardo, who has already signed for McLaren next season after he had a tough time in the yellow and black in his first season with the team, said the team has definitely turned a corner, finding the right balance for the team to excel.

“There is definitely something we picked up from Silverstone – like a sweet spot,” he said.

“I found it in terms of feeling in the car, ‘right, this is where we need to run the car’. And we played around a bit here as well this weekend with it.

“And again there was one session, I think it was in FP2, where I was like, ‘okay we found the sweet spot.’ So there is something fundamental which I think we’ve got a good choke hold on.

“It certainly brings the car alive. So yeah that‘s something which I’m pretty confident in, where the RS20 likes to be run.

“And I‘m not sure we had something like this last year. I’m not sure we had like a real discovery like this last year, so that’s been encouraging.”