Alpine’s Esteban Ocon has revealed that he feels “that the pace and potential is there” for Alpine to improve further at 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Ocon continued his best-ever start to a F1 season with a seventh-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia, last time out which the Frenchman believes “is obviously a good result” which highlights his “consistency with solid performances” in the opening three races.
The one-time race winner however has admitted that there will still be “room for improvement” amidst mixed overall results due to Fernando Alonso’s bad luck in the last two races.
Explaining what Alpine need to do to improve their overall performance in Imola and beyond, Ocon commented: “As a team, we’ve had mixed results and not being satisfied with where we stand today is testament to the progress we have made over the last months.
“I think we can see that the pace and potential is there, and we just need to put it all together with everything that a race weekend throws at us to improve our results overall.”
This weekend though sees the first appearance of the Sprint weekend format this season which Ocon is embracing, despite only finishing as high as ninth across the three Sprint Qualifying races last season.
Looking ahead to his preparations for the weekend as traditional qualifying again shifts to Friday, Ocon said: “On my side, I will prepare how I normally would, and the sprint format doesn’t make a difference in how I approach the race weekend.
I will do the necessary simulator work and arrive as mentally and physically prepared as I can, as I would for any race.”
Alonso meanwhile felt that he was simply “unlucky” to finish 17th and a lap down in the Australian GP after crashing in Q3 due to a loss of hydraulics, having enjoyed a strong weekend prior to the incident.
The Spaniard though is hesitant to predict how the weekend at Imola will unfold as he expects “a slightly different grid order at every Grand Prix this season given how close it all is.”
Alonso though is pleased with Alpine’s consistency so far this season which he views as “a positive sign” given how important the development battle could play in deciding this season’s finishing order come late November.
Having endured contrastable results in last season’s Sprint Qualifying races like Ocon, Alonso is also excited to see the format return with some tweaks to which he teased: “Formula 1 has made some changes to the format for this season, we’ll see if these have paid off.”
On whether he expects Imola to prove a decent circuit for a Sprint Qualifying race, Alonso added: “It’s a tough but not impossible track to overtake on, so I hope we see some action from the field on Saturday and Sunday.
There are a lot of points now available on three Saturdays this year. I’m hopeful we can come away with some points this weekend.”
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