Esteban Ocon said out-scoring his two-times world champion team mate Fernando Alonso was a satisfying result.
The only other driver to out-score Alonso as a team mate over the course of his 21-year career is Jenson Button, who took 16 points to his 11 in the disastrously unreliable 2015 McLaren-Honda MP4-30.Two other team mates have finished ahead of him in the standings: His first team mate Tarso Marques at Minardi, when neither scored, and Lewis Hamilton, who pipped him to the runner-up spot in the 2007 championship in a points tie having taken more second-place finishes.
In their first season as team mate at Alpine last year, Alonso beat Ocon by seven points. Those places were reversed this year, Ocon finishing 11 points ahead of his team mate. While Alonso has repeatedly pointed out he has suffered many technical failures on his car this year, Ocon said “I had my issues too.”
Finishing ahead of Alonso “feels good”, said Ocon. “He’s a very, very fast driver.
“Obviously I had to up my game as much as I could and to finish in front of him is a good satisfaction this year.”
Alonso participated in his last race for Alpine this year. He is due to test for his new team Aston Martin for the first time tomorrow.
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“It’s been great to work with Fernando and push the team in such level,” said Ocon. “So I’m glad to have spent two years with him, I wish him the best at Aston and hopefully we can fight closely also in the future.
Although Ocon did not repeat the race win or podium finish he achieved last year, he described 2022 as one of his most complete performances to date. “Obviously, the only thing that I missed this year in the end is a podium,” he said. “But those are for different circumstances that we didn’t get and hopefully we can get some of that next year.”
Alonso retired from the final race of the season just before half-distance. This was the sixth time this year he has not been running at the end of the race. Ocon, who has dropped out of two races this year, came in seventh, chasing Lando Norris to the chequered flag, securing fourth place for Alpine in the constructors championship this year
“I’m very, very pleased with the result that we got today,” he said. “Obviously, one more lap and we could have probably get Lando, was a very close race the whole way, but that doesn’t matter.
“All the targets that we set ourselves are accomplished, we finished fourth in the constructors championship. Thank God for that. I lost two-and-a-half kilos this weekend of stress and being too focussed and it is also my best season in Formula 1 in terms of points.
“So I’m very pleased with that, good job by the whole team to have developed the car so much over the year and hopefully we can close even more the gap for next year.”
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Slimmie205
21st November 2022, 8:15
He has zero self reflection. Alonso was clearly the fastest of the two. How many times did Alonso had a DNF??
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2022, 8:24
Indeed, satisfaction beating a team mate who constantly has mechanical problems? Hollow victory.
Slimmie205
21st November 2022, 8:45
Indeed! 41 year old… Alonso still has it. Ocon clearly lost to him. Points didn’t tell the whole story. I hope AM give him a good car next year.
Todfod (@todfod)
21st November 2022, 9:50
It’s a joke that he even made this statement. How many points did Ocon lose due to mechanical DNFs and poor strategy? 10? 12? 15? . Alonso lost anywhere between 60 to 70 points this season due to DNFs and bad team calls. He would have had nearly double the points total that Ocon would have had. Last year it was close between them.. but this season Alonso just owned him.
But, I guess if you’re a mediocre talent like Ocon, who is likely to achieve nothing more than that 1 fluke win in your career.. you would like to pat your own back at every opportunity possible.
David
21st November 2022, 10:01
The only person who ever outscored Alonso in his F1 career is Ocon, Hamilton only managed to match him on points. Clear as day Ocon is one of the all time greats
Todfod (@todfod)
21st November 2022, 10:45
Jenson did as well.. when they were in those stellar Mclarens in 2015. Not to mention Marquez, who is a living legend.
w0o0dy
21st November 2022, 13:42
Alonso had 3 more dnf’s than Ocon and outqualified Ocon (1,3 grid places difference in favour of Alonso).
Ocon shouldn’t brag as he didn’t beat Alonso at all even though he has 11 more points. If you take into account that Alonso also scored points with a damaged car it shows clearly that Alonso was the faster driver.
Sviat
21st November 2022, 15:51
@w0o0dy – Small correction – Alonso had six DNFs agains Ocon’s only two.
Dr.D
21st November 2022, 8:24
I am better at ping pong than Lewis Hamilton. Of all the ping pong matches I did, non where won by him, and ones in a while, I had a win.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st November 2022, 8:27
While Ocon had a strong, consistent year, it’s undeniable that Alonso was by far the strongest of the two. 11 points is really not so much considering how many good point scoring positions Alonso lost.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st November 2022, 9:04
Yeah, between the two, Alonso lost so many really solid shots at great scores this year @fer-no65, it wouldn’t have been even close.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st November 2022, 10:08
@bascb Exactly. I still don’t understand why Alpine got Ocon such a long deal last year. Made and still makes no sense. He’s good but not “3-year-contract” good.
With Gasly recent form, I don’t spect Alpine peaks to be as high as this year’s with Alonso.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st November 2022, 11:56
I guess we’ll find out @fer-no65. I do think that he was on his way out contributed to the frustration at AT.
Also, during the race the commentary team (probably Sam Collins) mentioned the team changed their brake material a few races back and both drivers have been struggling with their brakes ever since
Jasper
21st November 2022, 20:02
Points don’t tell the whole story, just see Senna v Prost ‘88-‘89. I’m not an Alonso fan, but I can’t make any argument for Ocon performing better over the course of 2022. If we amend the Championship points so Alonso got his points for his nailed on 7th in Mexico, Ocon dropping back 1 point to 9th. And Alonso getting points for 8th behind Ocon in Abu Dhabi the points would have finished Alonso 91 – Ocon 90. And that doesn’t even factor in all of Alonso’s other reliability issues, Bahrain, Saudi, Oz, Imola, Austria, Italy & Singapore.
Situs (@situs)
21st November 2022, 8:32
Points don’t tell the whole story in this fight.
Gubstar
21st November 2022, 8:35
You may have outscored him, but you definitely didn’t out perform him. In fact Esteban, I would go as far to say as you were so out-performed by your considerably older teammate, your days in F1 are numbered.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
21st November 2022, 9:10
Nice to see Tarso Marques getting a mention today! Achieving something only World Champions and now Ocon have achieved.
praxis (@praxis)
21st November 2022, 9:14
Ocon got outclassed by a 41 year old Alonso and this isn’t Ocon’s 1st year at Alpine.
Jeorge (@jeorge)
21st November 2022, 9:18
I give him two years max
Jeorge (@jeorge)
21st November 2022, 9:19
He’s smug not realising it’s possible he’ll leave F1 before Alonso retires
Todfod (@todfod)
21st November 2022, 9:53
@jeorge
Alpine’s team principle will probably get fired for letting go of 2 real talents like Alonso and Piastri, and instead locking Ocon, an absolute joke of a driver in a long contract.
Jeorge (@jeorge)
21st November 2022, 14:14
@todfod
This is the same team that broke the bank for Ricciardo (who is my favourite driver BTW)
I predict a Williams-like descent
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd November 2022, 3:56
While I’m no renault fan and I think the management is terrible, when they got ricciardo he was considered a pretty good driver.
Teri2
21st November 2022, 9:23
Trulli also outscored Alonso in the 2004 Renault stint until Briatore decided to get him out to protect his investment.
Fortunately Alonso no longer can throw out teammates, so he just chooses to pick another one which he thinks he’ll outperform and survive another year complaining about everything.
me
21st November 2022, 10:34
Briatore didn’t protect Alonso. Trulli was on a terrible run of form after France, and even France was bad the way he let Rubens through right at the end.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
21st November 2022, 11:38
Absolutely, the way he lost his position to Rubens in the last corner is the stroke that broke the camel’s back and Briatore has already been known of being impatient with average drivers.
hyoko
21st November 2022, 15:03
Fair enough but a bit arbitrary. You usually count full seasons. By choosing bespoke intervals you can prove almost anything.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd November 2022, 3:54
Indeed, you can probably pick periods of a season where barrichello outperformed schumacher, etc., makes no sense to me to fire a driver who matched alonso till then.
Sviat
21st November 2022, 9:24
Ocon and Alpine are happy. No one cares about what actually happened (Alonso was out of racing in about 35% of races with 6 DNFs plus mistakes on the pit stops and very poor strategies). Everyone cares about the points tally at the end of the year. And I bet that Alpine will start yelling as hard as they can that “Ocon is so much better that Alonso”.
Jogo
21st November 2022, 10:42
Maybe Alonso was faster because he pushed too much, that’s why so many DNFs.
Todfod (@todfod)
21st November 2022, 10:46
Thats still better than a driver who couldn’t really push the car.. so was generally trailing and out of the points.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
21st November 2022, 11:00
Alonso’s car has failed in half the races this season, much more than Ocon’s car did. It would have been really bad for Ocon if he didn’t lead on points.
A M (@amam)
21st November 2022, 11:03
Trulli also outscored him in 2004. Trulli left the team after Monza iirc, but had more points than Alonso before he departed. Nice that Tarso Marques is finally getting some recognition.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd November 2022, 3:52
That was an outlier (marques), they were in a minardi, a car that could only score with several retirements; alonso outperformed him across the year, trulli was however impressive that season and firing him made no sense.
hyoko
21st November 2022, 14:50
There has never been a more toxic teammate that Ocon since some guy named Ayrton bought the farm
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
21st November 2022, 18:49
Fernando made the right decision to leave. Maybe one day Esteban will realise Alpine lost more than a 41 year old driver when Fernando left.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd November 2022, 19:56
What a character. He takes the socio path to the top of f1.