Esteban Ocon says the recent updates brought to his A523 for the Belgian Grand Prix reflected a noticeable step forward, which helped the BWT Alpine F1 Team driver score points for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix.
Alpine have continued the development of their 2023 car and brought some significant updates in recent races, and Ocon rewarded them with an eighth place finish at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, his first top ten finish in four events.
The Frenchman has dedicated the result from Belgium to those working on the car development both at Enstone and Viry-Châtillon, with the pace in the medium- to high- speed corners far more impressive since the updates were introduced.
“It’s very encouraging that each time we bring an update, the car seems to take a step forward,” Ocon is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Clearly, I dedicate that [Sunday result] to Viry and Enstone, because it’s really encouraging that what we bring to the track really makes us step forward.
“The pace that we had on entry of corners and especially medium- to high- speed, looking at how low in downforce we were, it was quite impressive.
“Clearly, much more stability in the car, much more grip. It was very noticeable.”
Ocon believes Alpine fell behind to other teams in the development race earlier in the season, but it is wrong to say the team have lacked consistency when other teams are making significant gains.
“People will call it that we did lack consistency, which is not really the case because the pace is what it is,” Ocon added. “It’s just that the others have improved more in the middle.
“We kind of catch back now with the update that we bring, but we are not top-five anymore. We just need to improve more – it’s as simple as that. Keep bringing the updates.”
