Esteban Ocon doesn’t think Alpine has had a consistency issue in F1 2023, but it is more that others have improved quicker than them.
At no point Alpine looked to be in a situation where they were in a match with the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin this year. They hung around the Top 5 mark until the resurgence of McLaren which dropped them to sixth in the standings.
Even though they show good pace at times, but on a larger scale they look more behind the five teams on genuine terms. They could have had far better results if not for some of the races where they simply lost heaps of points, but pace remains a big problem.
Questions on consistency has been raised but Ocon doesn’t think that as a problem. He thinks it is the quicker improvements from the rivals which has held them back. “People will call it that we did lack consistency which is not really the case because, you know, the pace is what it is,” he said.
“It’s just that the others have improved more, in the middle, and you know, we kind of can catch back now with the update that we bring, but we are not in the Top 5 anymore. So yeah, you can call it like that. We just need to improve more, as simple as that, keep bringing the updates.
“But yeah, clearly the podium in Spa’s sprint is one of the highlights. And I hope that brings things to move forward for the whole team,” summed up Ocon. At the start of the year, fourth was the aim for Alpine until Aston Martin shocked everybody.
The fight was still for fourth but after McLaren’s push, there is suddenly a gap and heavy competition. Even though they would still like to finish fourth, it will all depend on the updates that Alpine can bring this year while not worrying too much about the future.
“It’s easy to say that, for you, now,” said Ocon when asked if P4 is realistic goal. “But, you know, we’ve been working very hard. So, obviously, we are not having the best couple of races. But, you know, when we’ve brought, you know, some good updates to the car we were fighting, you know, near the top five, we had a couple of Qualifyings where we were very well into the top 10.
“I finished on the podium in Monaco. You know, we qualified top five in Barcelona, Canada I was P6 and Pierre was P3 in [Belgium] sprint. It’s just that some of it hasn’t gone our way. Other teams have improved more than we did. But it really shows how tight it is and how much, you know, bringing something to the next race can change things.
“And yeah, I mean, we’ve seen it with McLaren what happens. Obviously, I’m not saying that bringing an update, that that’s what we are going to do, but we are keeping focusing on ourselves, trying to do the best we can and hopefully coming back in the point-scoring zone for the races ahead,” summed up Ocon.
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