Esteban Ocon takes credit for steering Alpine in the ‘right direction’ in 2022

Esteban Ocon feels he was 'lucky' to steer Alpine early into bringing upgrades, so the team could perform without being '100% on setup'.

Esteban Ocon takes credit for steering Alpine in the ‘right direction’ in 2022

Esteban Ocon

2022 was probably Esteban Ocon’s best Formula 1 season yet, in terms of consistency and top-down performance. While the Frenchman didn’t notch up a win (or a podium) like in 2021, he racked up his highest tally of points for a season yet, with 92. Unfortunately, however, he wasn’t able to snatch the ‘best of the rest’ token award, with that instead going to Lando Norris. But Alpine did beat McLaren overall.

It was Ocon who contributed the majority of the points, and according to his own statement, did ‘98%’ of the work, while his teammate Fernando Alonso did only ‘2%’. The Frenchman felt he was overworked. Moreover, he previously also stated that the new generation of cars is not as much fun to drive [as previous generation cars]. In addition to this, they were not easy to adapt to either.

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In an end-of-season interview, when asked how easy the 2022 cars were to adapt to, Ocon said as per GPFans: “Not easy. It took quite a lot of time. It was not a nice car to drive, and it was still difficult at times, for everyone. They are heavy, very stiff in general, and when there is a bumpy track it is quite tricky to find the compromise between grip and feeling the ride.”

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Read More: “They are heavy, it has less grip,” Esteban Ocon believes F1 cars have regressed in the ‘fun’ aspect after regulation changes

Esteban Ocon: It took me ‘quite a few races’ to get to grips with the car

Esteban Ocon in the 2022 Alpine 'A522'
Esteban Ocon in the 2022 Alpine ‘A522’

Formula 1 cars are great beasts and can take a long time to get used to – especially if they don’t particularly suit you (as Daniel Ricciardo found out in 2021). Even a car that would’ve been developed with Esteban Ocon’s input (on the onset of the new regulations) took him ‘quite a few races’ to get used to, understand, and find a compromise between the grid and the feeling.

Ocon said: “Having all the wheels on the ground at all times on the track is quite important, obviously, and it was quite difficult to understand at first, so it took me quite a few races.” adding that: “I was lucky enough I gathered the team in the right direction early on for them to bring upgrades, and they worked. So even if we were not 100 percent with the setup, we were still performing in the top 10, and that was nice.”

In 2023, the goal for Alpine and Ocon will be, first of all, to score a podium – why they failed to do in 2022. The hope will that the new all-French roster (with Pierre Gasly) can take the Renault-powered outfit to the next level. The car should also, in theory, be easier to get to grips with and drive around – as this will now be the second year of these regulations.

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