Alpine’s Esteban Ocon did not hide his disappointment about the inability to challenge their rivals during the Singapore Grand Prix, which saw the Frenchman finishing 13th after qualifying 15th.
His Saturday performance was particularly excellent, dragging his car out of Q1, and he was 0.354s faster than teammate Pierre Gasly.
Speaking after the race, the 28-year-old lamented the difficult weekend for the French outfit. He crossed the line over half a minute away from the points.
“Unfortunately, it was a tough weekend in general. I think we unfortunately maximised what there was in the car today. We just could not keep [up] with the train.
“With Tsunoda in front he just pulled away. We were just too slow to be able to be points contenders today.
“I think there is obviously three weeks for us to figure out something and try to get more out of the car.”
At this race last year, Ocon was running in a strong P6 before his car broke down with 20 laps to go.
Ocon had been hoping to fight for the lower end of the points in Singapore this time around. However, the pace simply was not there as Alpine’s poor season continued.
“I think the package today, we [have] maximised it. It was not enough, which is a little bit disappointing.
“Looking at last year and how we were running fifth, I was expecting more out of the car, or at least being able to be within close margin of the top ten, but it was very far from it.
“We need to be realistic and that was the case today.
While the A524 performed solidly on street circuits this year like Montreal and Monaco, Ocon stated that the car lacked the grip required to run with Haas, Williams and RB in Singapore.
“I think we were just lacking grip. There were other aspects that happened for us this weekend that made us compromise a little bit of grip, mechanically as well with the car.
“All these things do not go well together, but we are not far off maximising everything.
“We need to be doing better than this in terms of car performance to hope to be capitalising on something that will happen or will come to us in the next races.”
Ocon is unsure whether the team will introduce any upgrades for the United States Grand Prix, but he is certain that the team will burn the midnight oil despite the three-week gap between the Singapore and the Austin rounds.
“I do not know, to be honest. I am sure the team will push hard for that to happen, but we also need to be realistic that other teams will probably bring updates to Austin.
“The three-week gap is like a summer shutdown, except everyone is working flat out. It is probably a good time to do something.”
