In the first parts of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race, Esteban Ocon battled with his teammate, Fernando Alonso, and, after the Spaniard’s retirement, he managed to finish in sixth position, which meant eight more points for the Frenchman .
In some moments of the test he also battled with other single-seaters, especially with Lando Norris’s McLaren, which he overtook in the final laps, where he made sure to finish in a good place and which allowed Alpine to climb to fourth place in the table. builders.
However, criticism of the Renault engine continued in the paddock due to Alonso’s abandonment, which adds to the fire that occurred in the pre-season tests in Barcelona and the power deficit he had in Sakhir.
Ocon made it clear that the Paris manufacturer has taken a step forward on its updated powertrain, allowing it to battle with rivals after they lost some speed on the straights in 2021.
“It’s good. I mean, we don’t have to be shy with anybody,” the Frenchman said when asked by Motorsport.com about the current form of the power unit. “As soon as I had the DRS open, I was able to pass, I was easily able to overtake Nico Hulkenberg’s Aston Martin and Lando Norris’s McLaren.
“Who else? Fernando [Alonso] was there, he could compare with many different cars and it worked well for us,” continued the sixth-placed World Cup in the 2022 season after two appointments.
Ocon managed to overtake George Russell at the start of the Saudi Arabian GP, although shortly after, Mercedes overtook him, something that makes the Frenchman recognize that they are behind in the fight to be the third fastest team in terms of race pace .
“[Russell] was quicker than us. He wasn’t going as far away as we thought, but he was still running away compared to our car, so they still have a bit of a lead in the race, and this is something we’re going to work on.” said the rooster.
“I think it’s been a very strong two weekends for the team. Unfortunately, it’s a shame that Fernando didn’t complete the race, because there was a finish with double points again, but we’ve made progress,” he said. “We were quicker than in Bahrain, so that’s very good, it’s very positive.”
“It’s the second race of the year, there’s more to come too, I’m very happy to come in with so many points at the start of the season,” said the Alpine driver.
Alonso also praised the new engine after the Jeddah race: “I think now we are up to the others, we can fight on the straights, so we’ll see.”
The head of the Enstone team, Otmar Sfaznauer , stressed that the team will have to keep up the fight for aerodynamic development, which will be one of the most important issues in the current course of 2022 with the new single-seaters.
“The whole middle area is very tight,” said the Romanian. “Esteban [Ocon] has finished best of the rest, and Fernando would have been ahead of him if he hadn’t had that problem, so we’re happy.”
“However, the learning curve of this car is so steep that it is going to be a development race, we have to keep upgrading the car. Right now it is where it is,” Sfaznauer said.
“It’s not going to be the same tomorrow, what we try to do is add performance at a faster pace than the others,” said the Alpine boss, who admitted that being close to Mercedes is quite an extra motivation.
“In race pace, they are ahead of us, I don’t know, maybe they had problems in qualifying. We are going to do our best to try to compete with them, but today it seems that they have a better car,” he said.
“It’s like a carrot to keep pushing, it will take us a few races, look at various circuits to really assess where we are on the grid, and then as I said it will be a development race this year,” he continued.
Regarding the Renault power unit, he added: “At the Viry factory, from what I see, they have done a great job, they have improved the power. They have done a wonderful development over the winter, and we have a good base to continue. getting better”.
