Ocon satisfied with Alpine’s progress this season
While Alpine has chosen a frantic development pace on its A522, Esteban Ocon has shown satisfaction with the progress made by the French team at the beginning of the season.
This season, the budget cap compels teams to make choices regarding the pace of development. While some have chosen to introduce upgrades only when a major package is ready, others like Alpine regularly bring changes to their cars.
Next weekend at Silverstone, Alpine will introduce its sixth evolution, a pace of more than one upgrade every two races. A development frequency that satisfies one of the team’s two drivers, Esteban Ocon.
« That’s very encouraging. The team is pushing hard to have its improvements as soon as possible, even before the scheduled time. It’s going in the right direction. And I think that since the beginning of the year, we have made more progress than many teams. So yes, we can be happy and it’s going in the right direction.
Before Silverstone, Esteban Ocon seems optimistic. We have quite a few improvements coming, so there could be a good step forward for us. So yes, a lot of hope, it’s going to be a big week, starting from Tuesday for us [in the simulator], so a lot of work ahead. And yes, hopefully we can perform well because the car is where it should be.
An optimism that the Normand still restrains. When asked if Alpine will be able to compete with Mercedes, here is his response. « We’re not there yet. I was overtaken by both [Mercedes] in Montreal. So there is still a long way to go. But yes, that’s the goal. Yes, they are next on the list. »
After two consecutive double entries in the points in Baku and Montreal, Alpine will try to continue this impressive streak at Silverstone.
