Esteban Ocon has denied that Alpine’s current Formula 1 struggles this season are comparable to his prior experience with the backmarker Manor squad as a rookie.
Through his ties to Mercedes, Ocon embarked on his F1 debut midway through 2016 with the now-defunct Manor team, which collapsed at the end of that season.
The Frenchman failed to score a single point as the British-based outfit struggled with an MRT05 car that had not been upgraded due to escalating financial concerns.
Meanwhile, Alpine has slumped to the foot of the F1 order this term with an A524 challenger that represents a radical overhaul of the car concept from its predecessor.
Ocon and team-mate Pierre Gasly locked out the back row of the grid at the season-opening in Bahrain and the Enstone camp languishes bottom of the championship.
But with Ocon a tenth adrift of advancing through to the second stage of qualifying, the Frenchman believes that there is more reason to hope that Alpine can improve.
“I think it’s a different situation,” he said when asked if the situations were comparable. “Of course, we are sharing the same spots on the grid at the moment, but it’s only race one again.
“With Manor, we were very far from the cars in front. Here, one-tenth and we can gain a few positions. That’s the difference.
“We are much closer to the back than it was in 2016, when we were four seconds off. It’s a different situation and there is a way to improve here, which there wasn’t before.”
Ocon admits that the compact grid and the promise of upgrades provide him “hope” that Alpine’s current troubled predicament will not last for the foreseeable future.
“We know we are not where we want to be, so we should be improving and we have to improve,” he added.
“Back in Manor, I knew that we were going to be in the back of the grid. We were not going to have updates and that was it.
“It’s a very different way of seeing things. As you say, it’s down to one-tenth, you are there.”
Alpine conceded that its latest car is struggling with traction, but with the issue being exacerbated in Bahrain, Ocon is hopeful of a better showing in Saudi Arabia.
“I think from Bahrain, we pretty much optimized what we had here,” he assessed. “We need to see exactly where that is.
“The car was better here last year than in Bahrain. We had more performance. I think we qualified sixth here last year. Of course, I’m not going to say I’m going to qualify sixth this year, but we hope we are going to be a little bit closer to the pack than we were in Bahrain.
“We hope that we are going to be able to extract a little bit more. That’s the goal. Are we going to do it? We don’t know, but that’s what we aim to achieve.”
Regarding the Jeddah circuit being less sensitive penalising on traction, Ocon noted: “It’s a good point. We’ll see where it brings us. It’s a track that I really enjoy.
“I was on pole in 2021 at some point, which was nice. I’ve almost been on the podium. I’ve always finished in the points.
“I look forward to drive on this track and have some fun. First of all, I think that’s what we are here for. I look forward to see what we can do.”
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