Last time out before the break didn’t start out in the best way for Esteban Ocon, who spent the whole first free practice session in the garage, as mechanics were working on an issue on his A524.
The weekend took a better turn with him Qualifying in P10 and ultimately finishing the race in P9 behind Fernando Alonso.
“I think, yes, it’s been a tricky day. You know, we shouldn’t have had the problem that we had in FP1, so that obviously made the day a lot shorter,” he told media back in Spa.
“In FP2, the single lap pace was decent, but, you know, we struggled a lot on long run pace and that’s been the case for the last three, four races, really.”
Long runs are a struggle indeed, as before the Belgium Grand Prix the last time he managed to score points was in Barcelona back in June.
“We do okay qualifying and then we usually go backwards. And unfortunately, same feeling again, you know, we make damage to the rear tyres and we struggle a lot, so we need to see if that’s a lie I’m telling you.”
“I hope it is, but at the moment, the feeling is not great on the long run pace. It is okay in qualifying, but not in long run pace.”
Throughout the season Ocon and his teammate Pierre Gasly have been running different packages on their single seaters in order to test things out and find the most suitable specification.
In Spa it was Gasly starting with an upgraded version of the car, while Ocon debuted in the old spec.
“So today, basically, Pierre did run the new package, I did run the old one. We will decide what to do for tomorrow. We have enough if we decide, you know, to take it.”
“It was important for us to test, you know, the A car and the B car. So we’ll see how that goes and, you know, who will take the upgrade, who will not, if we both decide the same thing.”
But the big news around the paddock over the Belgian weekend was another one: at the end of this summer break Bruno Famin will be leaving his place as Team Principal and concentrate on other projects of the group.
“Not much to comment, you know, on my side”, said Ocon when asked to comment on the change of management.
“I think I’ve enjoyed working with Bruno. I want to thank him for the hard work, for his dedication. You know, he’s been putting in the hours, you know.”
“I was seeing him every time at the factory when I was there on the simulator. I was seeing him all the time when he was in Viry. And he’s the kind of person that took no day off.”
Stepping in as the new Team Principal as soon as F1 returns at the end of August will be Oliver Oakes.
The 36-year-old grew up in the Red Bull Young Driver Programme and then started his management journey in 2015 when he founded Hitech Grand Prix, a team that competes in Formula 2 and Formula 3.
“And yeah, I thank him for his hard work, for his dedication. And I’m sure, you know, we’ll meet again soon in that small world of motorsport,” concluded Ocon.
