Esteban Ocon has full belief that his BWT Alpine F1 Team can contend at the front of the field much like the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team, and if he didn’t, he says there would be ‘no point in racing’.
Aston Martin made a big jump in performance ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and currently sit second in the Constructors’ Championship after the first three races of the season, three races where Fernando Alonso has finished on the podium.
Alpine, on the other hand, have only scored eight points in the opening three events, four apiece for Ocon and his new team-mate Pierre Gasly, with the duo colliding and crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of the month.
Ocon says that Alpine’s engineers should have the same kind of belief that they can make a big leap forward after seeing what Aston Martin have done, and they should give up in they lose that belief.
“We have to in our mind think it is possible, otherwise there’s no point racing,” Ocon is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “If you think about it, we finished the season in December and when we restarted it was end of February, beginning of March. So it’s about three, four months.
“I don’t know if Aston would have been able to do so in-season but if you take three or four months, it’s not the end of the season. Aston Martin has shown, and fair play to them, that it is possible to make a big step if you find the right things, so it is doable.”
Ocon says that he has been impressed by what he has seen back at the Enstone factory, and with a big update planned for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he hopes to see some progress be made by them at the Baku City Circuit.
“I’m at the factory at least one or two days a week,” Ocon added. “I’ve been to the aero department, I’ve seen the future drawings, I’ve seen future concepts of the car, what we are going to bring to the car. And there are some really interesting ideas.
“It is interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing them being produced and seeing them on the car.”
