Esteban Ocon, 17th in the first Grand Prix, was clearly not happy

We didn’t have the opportunity to admire the pink and blue livery for long this weekend. Given the disappointing performances, the team’s efforts did not do the French team justice. Esteban Ocon, like the entire team, struggled for the season opener.

A Grand Prix in the depths of the field.

Starting from the penultimate position on the grid didn’t bode well. Thanks to a start where he was able to take advantage of the collision between Hülkenberg and Stroll, Esteban Ocon managed to move up 3 places.

The Alpine driver then pitted quite early. However, he still fell victim to Lance Stroll’s undercut, who was much faster anyway, and thus lost a position.

His early pit stop still allowed him to come out of the first pit stops in 14th position, just ahead of Alex Albon. The latter quickly overtook him, as did Daniel Ricciardo a few minutes later. It soon became clear that the Frenchman had to focus more on looking behind than in front. With 6 laps to go, he could not do anything against Niko Hülkenberg’s Haas and its soft tires either.

He delivered to journalists from Canal Plus his impression after the Grand Prix. Asked about the faults of the Alpine, he replied: “It’s clear that it’s missing a little bit everywhere. It was a difficult race, we got overtaken many times and it wasn’t fun behind the wheel.”

Esteban Ocon hopes for improvement in a week in Saudi Arabia

Even in difficulty, it is important to remain focused in order to gather the best possible data for the team. This is the aspect that the French driver emphasized: “It was a race where we will have a lot of data to come back with plenty of information for the next week. Jeddah should be a circuit that works better, for the car and the tires as well. We hope to have more performance there than here.” Follow-up…