“The only thing that I missed this year is in the end a podium,” Esteban Ocon feels 2022 was his best season yet


“The only thing that I missed this year is in the end a podium,” Esteban Ocon feels 2022 was his best season yet

Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon finished P8 in 2022, 30 points behind ‘best-of-the-rest’ Lando Norris, and 11 points ahead of his teammate, Fernando Alonso. This is his joint-highest championship position, and highest-ever points tally, with 92 to his name. While this is a good haul of points, Ocon was unable to snatch the ‘best-of-the-rest’ moniker despite Alpine finishing ahead of McLaren in the Constructor’s championship.

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Of his own admission, there was ‘only’ one other thing missing from Ocon’s season: A podium. Indeed, Norris is the only driver outside of the top three teams to score a podium finish in 2022. Apart from that, as per Autosport, the Frenchman feels that this was his best season in F1 yet. Beating two-time world champion Alonso is definitely impressive, even if the latter suffered from more reliability issues than Ocon.

As mentioned earlier, Ocon rates 2022 as his best season but hopes that he will score a podium next year: “I think it does. The only thing that I missed this year is in the end a podium. But for different circumstances we didn’t get those, but hopefully we can get some of that next year.”

He believes that he (and Alpine) ticked all the boxes this year: “All the targets that we set ourselves are accomplished. We finished fourth in the constructors’ championship. It is also my best season in Formula 1 in terms of points.”

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Also Read: “Work was 98% on my back and 2% on his,” Esteban Ocon claims that his relationship with Fernando Alonso deteriorated because he was ‘overworked’

Esteban Ocon: Beating Fernando Alonso is ‘good satisfaction’

Esteban Ocon (L) Fernando Alonso (R)
Esteban Ocon (L) Fernando Alonso (R)

While Esteban Ocon had lost out to a returning Fernando Alonso in 2021 by 7 points, in 2022, he turned it around. The Spaniard did not lack in performance and had many reliability issues as well (a total of six retirements), but that does not take anything away from Ocon, who admitted that it felt good to beat his far more experienced (now former) teammate.

Moreover, Ocon remarked that he also had his issues, and finishing in front of Alonso was ‘good satisfaction’: “I had my issues too. It feels good, it feels good I would say. He’s a very, very fast driver. I had to up my game as much as I could. To finish in front of him is good satisfaction this year.”

Alonso will be moving to Aston Martin next year, a team that made great development progress in 2022, and they may just be competitive with Alpine and McLaren next season. The relationship between Ocon and Alonso seemed to get fierier as the season progressed, with them colliding in spectacular fashion in Brazil, and there were comments in the media as well. Sparks may fly if they compete against each other in 2023.

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Also Read: “I can’t wait to get started,” Esteban Ocon is eagerly looking forward to “teaming up” with Pierre Gasly at Alpine in 2023

Also Read: “I was a bit disappointed,” Esteban Ocon feels there was ‘no need’ for Fernando Alonso’s critical comments post-Sao Paulo GP clash