Esteban Ocon says Alpine aims to take a step towards Formula 1’s top three teams this year but isn’t expecting to repeat his 2021 race win.
Alpine finished fifth in the championship that year, then rose one place in the standings last season. Although the team was unable to replicate Ocon’s surprise 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix victory, he said they made clear progress.“We finished fourth in Japan, fifth in Red Bull Ring [last year], there was not a lot missing,” Ocon told media including RaceFans at the team’s launch last week. “With a worse car in 2021 we won a race and we finished third in one. So everything’s possible.”
His former team mate Fernando Alonso, who left Alpine at the end of last season, last week criticised teams who he felt were “happy to finish fourth”. Ocon pointed out the team need to perform significantly better to stand a chance of beating Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes.
“Yes, as a target itself, it can sound similar to say we want to finish fourth, but the gap from fourth to third is huge at the moment,” said Ocon. “It was about 300 points or something in the constructors. So if we can be fourth but try and get much closer to third and maybe fight for third, that’s a completely different dimension.
“Trying to [go from] top-five finishes into podium territories, that’s completely different. So obviously it’s a very high target that we’re setting ourselves, continuing the regulations.
“But we have to set ourselves that target. We are very ambitious, we are competitors. That’s what we want to achieve. In Formula 1 anything can happen and we hope there’s going to be surprises.”
Ocon, who has already driven the team’s new A523 chassis at Silverstone, does not expect to discover Alpine have a race-winning package when pre-season testing begins at Bahrain International Circuit tomorrow.
“Realistically, I don’t think that’s where we set ourselves. Obviously, if we put the car in Bahrain and it’s super-performing, we can speak after Bahrain, yes. But at the moment I don’t think that is realistic.
“We’ll see. There could be surprises in F1, we’ve seen it in the past. We were not expecting the Brawn to be a winning car in 2009. So we will see.”
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DB-C90 (@dbradock)
22nd February 2023, 11:49
They keep saying they’re ambitious and keep delivering average.
I just don’t see Alpine being anywhere near the front runners or even progressing far as it just seems never to happen. Something fundamentally wrong with that team.
Martin (@f1hornet)
22nd February 2023, 13:24
I agree, and for a manufacturer team to be no more than a solid midfield team after so many years is a failure. I’m not sure whether it’s the budget, their culture, or what but they’re no more than a competent outfit where fourth is the best they can hope for.
Todfod (@todfod)
22nd February 2023, 14:44
They’re not just delivering average.. they’re dreaming average. They know they’ll never be championship contenders, and they’re just willing to hang around and be respectable.
Mooa42
22nd February 2023, 22:44
When I compare Alpine, Mclaren and Aston Martin, it appears Alpine and McLaren come out with a third or forth best car and then proceed to tweak it to try and beat each other. When I look at Aston it appears they come out, if the car isn’t working then they go back and come out with something different. Aston appear to be looking for the big wholesale changes that are needed to jump up to the front of the field. At this stage neither approach appears to be working but I really can’t see Alpine or McLaren getting to the front if they just continually tweak what is already .5 to 1 sec off the pace, I think Alpine and McLaren need to be more adventurous, every race they should be aiming to have bridged the gap, not on trying to beat each other.