Fernando Alonso Trying ‘to Be Connected’ to Esteban Ocon to Build a Better Alpine F1 Car

It’s not often that teammates praise each other as they see themselves as rivals. However, Fernando Alonso has been impressed working with his French teammate, and Esteban Ocon even applauded his hard work and determination.

Ocon managed to finish 13th in the opening round in Bahrain, whereas Alonso had to retire due to brake issues. While at Imola, Ocon crossed the line in ninth position ahead of his veteran teammate.

The two-time world champion would like to beat Ocon and hopes to redeem himself in the upcoming races, hopefully finishing higher than Ocon at the Portuguese GP.

Fernando Alonso has been impressed by Ocon at Alpine

As quoted by Autosport, Alonso said, “Definitely I’m impressed and I’m happy to have Esteban alongside me.

“He’s very professional, he works very hard, not only here trackside but also in the simulator. We shared a lot of stuff. While either of us is in the simulator, we try to be connected and work towards a better car.

“I know that he puts a lot of dedication into the team. It’s good for both drivers when you have a team-mate who works very hard, so he’s doing that.”

“At the same time you want to be as fast as your team-mate or a little bit faster every time. This time [in Imola qualifying] it didn’t work into that way, but I will try the next one,” Alonso concluded.

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Ocon also looks forward to more battles with Alonso

At the Emilia GP, the two Alpine drivers were fighting each other for a better points finish. In the end, Ocon came ninth while Alonso finished behind him. Therefore, the Frenchman looks forward to more battles in the upcoming races of this season.

After the Emilia GP, Ocon said, “We had good fights together with Fernando. It was good fun. I feel like there was potentially more on the table today; the pace was good inside the Top 10.”

“We could probably have done P7, P8, get in that group, but you know that’s how it is today. We get the reward with one point and will get more with the next one,” Esteban concluded.

The next round takes us to Portugal, where Alpine would be hoping to have a better result. Alonso and Ocon will aim to extract the most out of the car and hope to score more points in the upcoming weekend.