Esteban Ocon Admits Alpine Need to Make ‘our race pace stronger…’

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon has admitted that Alpine need to make ‘our race pace stronger’ ahead of 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.

Having finished ninth in a difficult Spanish Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon is now set to race in Monaco for the first time since 2018, which coincidentally marked the last time that teammate – Fernando Alonso also raced around the Principality’s streets.

Speaking on his expectations for Thursday (20 May) Practice, Ocon said; “I think it’ll take us a little bit of time to get back up to speed and find the limits during practice.”

Ocon also acknowledged how important confidence is around this circuit as he enters this race off the back of two ‘good’ performances in Portugal and Spain, which both demonstrated evident progress with Alpine’s A521.

This race will see Alpine continue to develop and improve both cars with a small aerodynamic upgrade which Ocon has welcomed, especially after finishing ninth in the race after having qualified fifth on the grid.

Explaining what he wants to see from the car in race trim, Ocon commented; “Our race pace needs to be stronger if we’re to capitalise on our qualifying performances.”

 

‘Qualifying will be very important…’

Alonso is set to participate in his 17th Monaco GP this weekend but has admitted that his one lap pace on Saturday (22 May) will be crucial in Qualifying, owing to the difficulty in overtaking around this track.

Reflecting on how vital Qualifying will be this weekend, Alonso said; “Qualifying will be very important, just as it was in Spain, so we need to work on maximising our one lap potential to make sure both cars do well on Saturday.”

Alonso is also wary of traffic management potentially playing a role in proceedings due to the lack of space for cars on outlaps to move clear of faster cars on flying laps.

The Spaniard however endured a difficult Spanish Grand Prix at his home race in which he finished 17th after failing to execute an one-stop race strategy, bemusing that strategy on reflection as one which “was probably too optimistic.”

Alonso though felt that the last race weekend was “positive” on an overall note with a carryover of car performance from Portugal, which has left the Spaniard confident that recent developments on A521 has worked successfully.