Alpine’s Esteban Ocon says the team must “come back stronger” at the Australian Grand Prix after an average start to the 2023 campaign.
Ocon suffered a miserable race in Bahrain a fortnight ago, but made amends in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by finishing eighth and scoring points for the first time this season.
The Frenchman ended up eighth having started sixth after Charles Leclerc’s recovery from 12th after taking a penalty, while team-mate Pierre Gasly finished ninth, as he did in Bahrain.
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“Happy to finally start my season, let’s call it that way,” he said. “Strong weekend for us. We maximised qualifying, we maximised the race as well. We couldn’t hold the cars in front really, we thought at some point it was going to be possible to hold the Ferraris but they were too fast. They pulled away in that middle phase of the second stint.
“We just managed the pace, bring the car back home, and strong weekend as a whole, but we need a little bit more to catch the cars in front. That’s where we were today, so hopefully we understood plenty and we can come back stronger at the next one.”
Eight points from the opening two rounds of the season leaves Alpine fifth in the Constructors’ Standings, 79 points adrift of the imperious Red Bull and 18 behind fourth-placed Ferrari.
For a team that was aiming to hold onto fourth and close up on the top three this year, this has been a sobering start to the term.
“No, we can’t be satisfied with where we are at the moment,” conceded Ocon. “There are teams that have improved massively over the others, so it shows that it is possible. We need to keep fighting, we need to keep digging, keep thinking and that’s the atmosphere within the team as well. But, no, we can’t be satisfied.”
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