A Singapore Grand Prix to forget for Esteban Ocon

The Grand Prix weekends follow each other and look the same for Esteban Ocon. While in Monza, the Frenchman finished outside the top 10, this time he was forced to retire due to a technical issue on the 27th lap, while he was in thirteenth position. This is the first double retirement for Alpine in 2022. The team is currently working to identify the suspected power unit problems on both cars.

Departing from seventeenth place in Singapore, Esteban Ocon nevertheless believes that the cars showed good performance this weekend, despite the lack of reliability. “It’s a frustrating day for the team. On my side, a power unit problem prematurely ended our race, and I know the team is currently investigating the exact origin of the failure,” the driver said after the race. “Obviously, it’s very disappointing to leave Singapore with a double retirement, but the positive point is that our car was competitive throughout the weekend, and we know that we have a good pace. We will race again next week in Suzuka, my favorite circuit, so for now, we will put this behind us to come back stronger in Japan.”

The Alpine boss, Otmar Szafnauer, also regrets this result despite a weekend during which we were very competitive. It is important to identify the origin of what happened and implement preventive measures to avoid it happening again. As for the course itself, it proved to be particularly difficult due to a drying track. We were about to enter a window where it became possible to switch to slick tires before our retirements. These kind of days happen from time to time and, although the team is currently dominated by disappointment, we have another race next weekend in Japan that will give us the opportunity to bounce back immediately, concludes the Team Principal.

We leave Singapore with a double DNF. A disappointing end to a tough week.#SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/bUXpavo28H

— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) October 2, 2022