Ocon Cautious Despite Progress at Chinese GP

Alpine F1’s Ocon remains wary after an unconvincing finish at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Esteban Ocon is convinced that Alpine F1 has made progress, but he is not yet sure to what extent. The French driver, who finished 11th at the Chinese Grand Prix, advises caution and recommends not reading too much into the result of this fifth race of the season.

“For the moment, we haven’t scored a single point this season, so it’s too early to say, but this is our best result of the year with both cars,” stated Ocon. “We need to be careful about what we interpret from this, and from the race itself.”

“A lot happened, and many contenders were at the back, so that’s another thing we need to watch. But at the same time, I feel it was a very good weekend operationally and from a driving perspective, so I am pleased.”

“I’m a bit disappointed at the same time not to be in the points; we finished just 2.3 seconds away, which is tough to swallow given the work we’ve done. Not having that reward is quite sad, but we are moving in the right direction, step by step.”

Ocon reveals that the upgrades brought to Japan and then to China have helped improve the performance of the A524, but the Frenchman believes his team can still do better: “It’s a very good effort, from a weight perspective, it’s definitely a step forward.”

“We are obviously expecting more from the aerodynamic side, but we need to dig deep to see if we have managed to extract the maximum, and if it has brought the performance we thought it would in the simulator. I think we found more in the simulator than on the track.”