Alpine had a rough season start to this campaign, struggling to even get out of Q1, especially from Bahrain to Japan. But they have just scored their first point at the Miami Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon who finished 10th.
The French team has been struggling to close the gap up to the leading midfield teams as their overweight car saw them drop right to the back of the pack early doors.
In China, Alpine brought in an upgrade package for Ocon which consisted of a revised floor to help reduce the weight of the car and deliver aerodynamics gains.
Ocon explained the plan that Alpine has is putting them in the right direction, but they are still not in the position they want, which is to be scoring bigger points and running at the head of the midfield with RB F1 or pushing Aston Martin.
He also explained that despite the positives of bringing home points, it was not a smooth weekend as they still had problems with their pace.
“We don’t want to be jumping around and celebrating too hard.
“Obviously, it’s only a top 10. But considering where we were a couple of races ago in Bahrain, 19th and 20th, we can take the positive out of this race.
“The baby steps that we are doing at the moment and that obviously feels good because the team kept motivated trying to understand what is going on with our pace, and it hasn’t been the smoothest weekend.
“But it’s two races that we’ve come close to the points: 11th in Shanghai, 10th today – we are inside the points, and definitely feels good to come out of this weekend with some reward.”
Ocon started the race from the 13th grid slot behind his teammate Gasly on the medium compound tyres. He then dropped two places as the Aston Martin of Alonso and the Williams of Albon got past him following a ferocious battle with his stablemate on the first lap.
Ocon moved up to 10th as the likes of Hülkenberg, Gasly and Albon boxed early. He pitted on lap 23 under the Virtual safety Car that was deployed as the bollard Verstappen hit had to be removed.
He came out 14th right behind his teammate but quickly cleared him and followed it up by doing the same to Hülkenberg.
The Frenchmen had some intense battles with Alonso, but his former teammate ultimately prevailed as they fought for P9. In the closing laps, he fended Hülkenberg who was on mediums and snatched that last points place.
“We are still better in qualifying than we are in the race. Today if you leave 10 more laps probably Nico would have been very close and fighting with us again.
“I had to fight my way through in that race. It was insane how many moves I had to do and the fact that we’re struggling with the straight-line speed as well didn’t help too much, same issues as yesterday [engine cut-outs].”
“So not the perfect lead up to the race from Saturday onwards, but nevertheless, we come up with some reward.”
Ocon also talked about the Sprint weekend in Miami. It was a tight and busy schedule as they had many things to prepare for compared to other races this season.
“Miami is always a lot of fun. It’s a good race track now with the resurface there has been.
“But the Sprint weekend for an event like that is maybe not the best suited, there’s too much going on. It would be good to build up the weekend until you arrive in qualifying.
“But today was 120% pushing and I’m glad to finish the race that way.”
Alpine are now 8th in the Constructors’ standings, ahead of Sauber and Williams who are now the only teams yet to score a point this season.
The Enstone-based squad has came a long way from having an overweight car and constantly at the back of the pack, to a team finally fighting for points a quarter of the way into the season. With more upgrades coming, the team could find itself fighting Haas and RB F1 to be the leaders of the second pack in the near future.
