One step away from the first points
The Chinese Grand Prix ended with a relatively positive result for theAlpine, obviously taking into consideration the critical start of the French team in this world championship. In addition to Q2 reached by both drivers, the race ended with the11th place by Esteban Ocon, which is equivalent to his and the team’s best result after five GPs. The performance was also good Pierre Gasly, 13th under the checkered flag, but thinking about the results in Shanghai, Ocon wanted to make some necessary clarifications.
The analysis of the result
Although the results were more encouraging than those obtained in previous races, the #31 did not allow himself to be carried away by excessive optimism, explaining what were nevertheless the positive points to take into consideration for the next GPs: “At the moment we haven’t gotten a point yet this season, but it is our best result of the year with both cars – he declared to the media – we must be careful what we read, and also to who was in that race: a lot happened and a lot of contenders were at the back, so that’s the other aspect we need to pay attention to. But at the same time, I think it was a very positive weekend from an operational and driving point of view, so I’m satisfied. However, I’m a bit disappointed not to get into the points: we ended up 2.3 seconds apart, which is hard to digest given the work we did. The race was made the most of and was my best of the season, but not having this reward is quite sad. We are going in the right direction, little steps at a time“.
Simulator feedback
In Shanghai, Alpine also introduced the first updates featuring a lighter frame and a new bottom for Ocon only (Gasly will have them available in Miami), but despite this the winner of the 2021 Hungarian GP indicated that the numbers on the simulator were better than those found in reality: “It’s a very good effort, and weight-wise it’s definitely a step forward – explained the Frenchman about the 2 kg less of the frame – obviously we expect more from an aerodynamic point of view, but we need to understand if we managed to get the maximum and if it brought the performance we thought we would get in the simulator. I think probably on the simulator we found something more than on the track“.
