Alpine’s Esteban Ocon has revealed that he is looking for a “smooth” weekend at 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, as F1 returns to Montreal for the first time since 2019.
Ocon is coming into this race off the back of a tenth-placed finish at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, having originally qualified 13th for the race after he was caught out by a yellow flag.
Reflecting on the trip to Baku, Ocon felt that it wasn’t one of his strongest performances despite having shown “decent competitiveness” throughout Practice and Qualifying, although he felt that a double-points finish with Fernando Alonso in seventh was “a positive” for the team.
This weekend sees F1 return to Montreal, Canada for the first time since 2019 after the 2020 & 21 Canadian Grands Prix were cancelled, as a consequence of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic although Ocon last raced here in 2018.
Ocon finished sixth and ninth respectively in his two previous visits to Montreal but he feels that the “fast straights” should benefit Alpine, as he targets a better weekend.
Explaining what he hopes to achieve this weekend, Ocon said: “The aim will be to have a smooth weekend, go through our programme without any issues, show our pace in Qualifying, and score some good points on Sunday.”
Alonso meanwhile felt that his seventh–placed finish in Baku “was a decent result” after taking advantage of retirements of other drivers on top of having “maximised” his car amidst tyre degradation due to his low downforce setup.
Alpine Chief Technical Officer, Pat Fry though has iterated that Alonso should expect to run “a slightly higher downforce level due to the different characters of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve compared to Baku City Circuit, which will include a rise in rear wing level and other tweaks.
Fry also confirmed that Alpine will run “a circuit-specific rear wing package” in Montreal ahead of further upgrades at British and Austrian Grands Prix.