Esteban Ocon stated Alpine is aiming to take a step in the direction of Components 1’s prime three groups this yr, however doesn’t count on to repeat its 2021 race win.
Alpine completed fifth within the championship that yr, after which moved up one spot final season. Though the group did not repeat Ocon’s shock 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix victory, they stated they’d made clear progress.
“We completed fourth in Japan and fifth within the Pink Bull Ring. [last year], not a lot was lacking,” Ocon advised media, together with RaceFans, on the group’s launch final week. “We received a race in 2021 with a worse automobile and completed third in a race. So something is feasible.”
Former teammate Fernando Alonso, who left Alpine final season, criticized groups he thought have been “glad to complete fourth” final week. Ocon identified that the group needed to carry out considerably higher to have an opportunity to beat Pink Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes.
“Sure, as a stand-alone objective, it could sound like we need to end fourth, however proper now the hole between fourth and third is large,” Ocon stated. “It was about 300 factors within the constructors. So if we could possibly be fourth, however get very shut to 3rd and perhaps combat for third, that is a complete completely different dimension.
“to strive [go from] finishes within the prime 5 within the podium zones, it is fully completely different. Clearly, that is a really excessive objective we set ourselves by conserving rules.
However we should set ourselves this objective. We’re very bold, we’re rivals. We need to obtain this. Something can occur in Components 1 and we hope there are surprises.”
Having used the group’s new A523 chassis at Silverstone, Ocon would not count on to find that Alpine has a race-winning bundle when pre-season testing begins tomorrow on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit.
“To be practical, I do not assume we put ourselves on the market. Frankly, if we put the automobile in Bahrain and it performs tremendous, we are able to speak after Bahrain, sure. However I do not assume that is practical proper now.
“We’ll see. There could be surprises in F1, we have seen that previously. We did not count on Brawn to be a profitable automobile in 2009. So we’ll see.”
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2023 F1 season
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