“Fernando Is No Better Than Last Year”: Months After Alonso’s Ugly Split With Alpine, Esteban Ocon Gives Honest Opinion About His Arch-Rival

Midway through the 2022 Formula 1 season, Fernando Alonso announced that he would be leaving the team he won his two championships with—Alpine, which until 2020 was called Renault. While the team was convinced he’d spend at least another year in Enstone, Aston Martin issued a press release stating that the Spaniard was joining the Silverstone outfit in 2023. And ever since the split was announced, Alpine hasn’t had the best time in the sport.

Less than a month after Alonso’s announcement, Alpine lost their reserve driver, Oscar Piastri, to McLaren. Even though the team finished P4 in the championship last year, it did not start the year on the best foot. And while it was struggling, Alonso was busy achieving podiums in his new car. Alpine’s first sign of respite came at the Monaco GP when Esteban Ocon achieved a podium. And now, the team has seen an investment of $218 million to help better its performance. Even so, the team has a long way to go to catch up to Alonso and Aston Martin, and Ocon had a few things to say about his old teammate.

Esteban Ocon reveals what he thinks has changed for Alonso

Aston Martin finished P7 in the championship last season, and right now, the Silverstone outfit is P3 in the championship, fighting Mercedes for second. That’s not all. Fernando Alonso has scored podiums in six of the eight races so far, and while doing so, he’s made it a point to advise his teammate, Lance Stroll, on what settings are helping him capitalize on the car’s performance. But he never did this with Ocon, which might’ve been because, half the time, the two were fighting each other and were, in effect, rivals.

But Ocon opened up about his former teammate’s performances. As quoted by motor.es, he explained, “Fernando is not better than last season, he is just as strong as before, but he has a better car this year.” The Frenchman believes that Alonso is just as good now as he was in Alpine; he just didn’t have the car to belt out podiums and top-five finishes consistently. But now that he has a car capable of competing at the very top, his true potential is shining through.

Ocon added that watching Aston succeed “gives us the motivation to see how quickly a team from the middle zone can become a team at the top.” Aston owner Lawrence Stroll invested around $300 million to build a new factory for the team, which included a new wind tunnel. From being unable to compete in the midfield to consistently competing for podiums, a lot has changed for Aston in a year. And now that Alpine has some funding of its own due to the recent investment, Ocon is hopeful that the team can also turn its fortunes around.

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Right now, though, Alpine is focusing on this year and its fight against Ferrari for P4 in the championship. Esteban had a good outing at the Austrian GP last year and hopes for a repeat result to help his team in the bid for P4.

The Austrian GP has Esteban Ocon excited

The Austrian GP last year was a Sprint weekend. With Alpine’s good qualifying and race pace around the circuit, he qualified P5 for the Sprint, finished P6 in the Sprint, and crossed the line in P5 in the race. While discussing this year’s edition, he expressed how he would like another good weekend at the circuit. 

With the Sprint format this time out, too, more points are up for grabs. Ocon is on a four-race point-scoring streak and would look to extend it further. If the car’s performance is similar to last year’s, Ocon and his teammate, Pierre Gasly, can help the team close the gap with Ferrari.

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Do you think Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon are on good terms?