Esteban Ocon has admitted that the Alpine Formula 1 team’s “backwards step” during the Japanese Grand Prix meant that he “couldn’t fight” against its competitors.
Alpine has endured a disastrous start to the season with an overweight and uncompetitive A524 car but appeared to have made small progress during recent rounds.
The Enstone-based squad introduced minor upgrades to both improve performance and reduce weight, with Ocon advancing into Q2 for the second time this season.
However, the two Alpine cars were the last classified runners at Suzuka except for Williams’ Logan Sargeant, who ruined his race with a trip into the gravel at Degner 2.
Prior to that, the Alpine drivers had made contact upon the standing restart as Pierre Gasly sliced between his team-mate and Yuki Tsunoda on the approach to Turn 1.
But Ocon – who finished 15th, one place ahead of Gasly – denies that the damage both inherited from that minor touch prevented either from climbing higher in the order.
“I don’t think it has changed the overall picture of the race, unfortunately,” he said. “Yes, it didn’t help, that’s for sure, but we didn’t lose that much performance on both cars.
“I think we were not quick enough today. I think we did this weekend a good step forward in qualifying.
“But in the race, that’s probably the first step backwards since Bahrain. There’s some similarities between here and Bahrain, so we want to look at that.”
Asked whether Alpine knew where the potential it showed over one lap dissipated to in the race, Ocon suggested that some set-up tweaks could have been responsible.
“There is some things that we changed this weekend which could mean that we struggled more in the race,” he answered.
Alpine elected to trigger an undercut on the cars ahead to gain track position, but Ocon admitted that it was too slow to remain ahead of those it had leapfrogged.
“Strategy-wise we try and be bold, we try to undercut a lot of cars, which we did,” he explained.
“We passed like four cars at one point. But yeah, I could not do anything to hold them.”
Ocon finished over 20 seconds behind the next car ahead and he conceded that Alpine’s lacklustre pace combined with the damage made it impossible to battle.
“Yeah, today I felt like I couldn’t fight,” he bemoaned. “The other ones were in another category.”
Meanwhile, Gasly bemoaned the contact with his team-mate more than Ocon as it wrecked his chances of a stronger result following a strong launch on the restart.
“I overtook the Haas, then Esteban and then got myself alongside Yuki,” he reflected. “At that point, I was sandwiched between both in an unfortunate racing incident.”
The Frenchman disclosed that his car incurred “significant damage to the floor” which cost him “30 points of downforce” on his A524 for the remainder of the event.
“From then, it was a very difficult race, there was not much we could do other than push as hard as possible,” he added.
Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin revealed that “both cars suffered significant losses in downforce”, but sided with Ocon that it didn’t cost a potential points finish.
“We are lacking pace and we must keep improving in all areas and bringing upgrades to the car,” Famin addressed.
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