Esteban Ocon does not believe it will take long for his new team-mate at the BWT Alpine F1 Team, Pierre Gasly, to settle into the team, and he says his fellow Frenchman is likely to be a big asset for the Enstone-based outfit.
Gasly has left the Red Bull stable for the first time in his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career to replace the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team bound Fernando Alonso ahead of the 2023 season, but Ocon believes he will quickly acclimatise to his new surroundings and be quick on track straight out of the box.
And Ocon, who will have his third team-mate in four years since he joined the team after Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, reckons Gasly won’t need much help from him to adapt to life at Alpine, and he hopes the two of them can help the team move further forward up the grid after finishing fourth in the Constructors’ Championship last season.
“I don’t think he’s going to need much help,” said Ocon to Motorsport.com. “I think Pierre is very experienced.
“He’s driven for different teams, he’s driven a lot in testing also prior to that. It’s always a learning curve of understanding the car, how you work. The team and I, we have the keys, and again, the important thing is for us to debate, do the same thing we were doing with Fernando.
“Straightaway we need to be on pace to be able to score, and to give good feedback to the team, to really improve it.
“I’ve already [tried] some parts of the ’23 cars, and it was very encouraging, incredibly fast I would say. So far, it’s only simulations, but it feels good. We need to keep going that way, and Pierre will be a good asset for that.”
