Ocon extended his starting hard-compound Pirelli tires until the final lap, with his Alpine team hoping a safety car or red-flag incident might create an opportunity for the driver to secure a cheaper pitstop.
In the absence of such incidents, to avoid disqualification and similar to Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, Ocon was required to pit at the checkered flag to put on a set of soft tyres.
But with Sergio Perez gearing up to take the title, F1 personnel had begun entering the pit lane and appeared to be imminently setting up obstacles, forcing Ocon to refrain from action.
The FIA therefore summoned its own parc ferme representatives before its stewards, explaining that the incident “fortunately” ended “without serious consequences”.
The governing body has called for an immediate remedy for the end-of-race pit lane agreement, with input from Formula One’s governing body and the FIA, to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated.
An FIA bulletin reads: “The stewards have listened to the views of the FIA representatives and have determined that the relevant representatives have taken steps to establish the park area and allow the media and other personnel to congregate in the pit lane and pit lane on the final lap. The pit lane was open at the end of the start race, before Ocon made his final pit stop.
“We noticed that it was not uncommon for the delegates to allow these guys into the pit lane before the end of the race, which is the normal parc ferme and podium ceremony preparation process.
“However, in this case one driver had to pit on the last lap, which created a very dangerous situation for the drivers who were in the pit lane at the time.
“We consider it fortunate that what happened today did not have serious consequences.
“We stress that the requirement to ensure safe and orderly activity is of paramount importance. This has been acknowledged by the FIA team.
“We discussed the relevant procedures and protocols in detail with FIA representatives and asked them to take immediate steps to reconsider them with relevant stakeholders, including FOM, teams and the FIA, to ensure that this situation does not happens again.
“The FIA representatives regret what happened and assured us they will do so in time for the next race.”
Notably, a similar situation occurred at the end of the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, when Williams driver Alex Albon made a late pit stop.
There was no FIA hearing or follow-up.
“It’s not what we want to see,” Ocon said of his account of the Baku near miss.
“I don’t understand why we start podium preparations and ceremonies when we’re still racing, with a lap to go and people who haven’t pitted.
“Arrived at 300km/h (186mph), braking very late, I saw obstacles and people around me. It was crazy, it could be big, big today.
“It’s definitely something that needs to be discussed because it’s something we don’t want to see.
“If I had missed the braking point, it would have been a catastrophe, so it was a crazy moment.”
The spokesperson of the FIA said that it has received the decision of the director, and the relevant procedures will be updated in time for the next Miami race.