Esteban Ocon believes Force India only faces a narrow deficit to Red Bull in the pecking order after he sampled the squad’s VJM11 in representative conditions for the first time.
Ocon conducted only one day of testing last week, which was held in unseasonably cold conditions, but returned to action on Wednesday, logging 130 laps, equivalent to two race distances.
Ocon placed 12th overall, ahead of only Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin, 2.758s behind pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo.
When asked whether placing fourth for a third straight year was realistic, Ocon replied: “We will see where we are in Melbourne, that’s the most important.
“Today was a good day, plenty of mileage under our belt and long runs look promising, not far off Red Bull I think, so we are quite happy.
“I know they [Red Bull] were P1, you will see.”
Expanding more on Force India’s day, Ocon said: “We are really happy about today.
“That’s what we needed after the difficult conditions the other day. Yesterday, not so much running. It’s what we needed – a clean day today.
“We did most of our programme and it will make us move forward in the future that day and we understood plenty so there’s plenty to analyse, and we are quite happy with today.”
Ocon will hand over testing duties to Sergio Perez for Thursday’s running.
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