Esteban Ocon says that the tire test in Abu Dhabi is important for Alpine to better understand the car ahead of next year.
Last season, Alpine mainly lacked consistent performance, for example, Esteban Ocon occupied fourth place in Las Vegas, while a week later in Abu Dhabi they failed to finish in the points.
The fact that they can now test on a track where they struggled is important to improve the car, according to Ocon, just as the input from reserve driver Jack Doohan can be very useful. He believes it is extremely important that the team seizes this opportunity to understand why performance has not been consistent.
“What is important for us is that we understand what has happened this season, a lot of ups and downs in terms of performance, in terms of pace,” said Ocon after the race on Sunday. “Unfortunately, today we were not fast enough to get into the top ten and score points.”
“And the constant, I think, is what we clearly need to improve on. So we took good opportunities, like in Monaco, Las Vegas and things like that, but also a lot of opportunities that we didn’t take, like in Singapore and Austin.
“And if you take those two into account, we could probably have been in the top 10 of the championship among drivers. And it is what it is, but it clearly means we didn’t get the most out of the season.”
“So it’s going to be important to fix all those things for next year and get them under control.”
Ocon immediately put his words into action because on Tuesday he was the fastest man on the track in Abu Dhabi. He stayed ahead of Pato Oward who was allowed to drive the McLaren and Frederik Vesti completed the top three in a Mercedes.
His colleague at Mercedes, George Russell, fared less well, parking his W14 in the crash barriers after 58 laps following a technical defect.
1 Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1m24.393s | 110 |
2 Pato O’Ward | McLaren | 1m24.662s | 103 |
3 Frederik Vesti | Mercedes | 1m24.679s | 106 |
4 Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m24.715s | 117 |
5 Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m24.799s | 69 |
6 Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1m24.827s | 37 |
7 Jack Doohan | Alpine | 1m25.038s | 108 |
8 Robert Shwartzman | Ferrari | 1m25.050s | 123 |
9 Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1m25.263s | 56 |
10 Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m25.371s | 66 |
11 Theo Pourchaire | Alfa Romeo | 1m25.424s | 96 |
12 Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin | 1m25.554s | 123 |
13 Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1m25.570s | 59 |
14 Jake Dennis | Red Bull | 1m25.666s | 124 |
15 Ayumu Iwasa | AlphaTauri | 1m25.753s | 96 |
16 Oliver Bearman | Haas | 1m25.779s | 110 |
17 Zak O’Sullivan | Williams | 1m25.842s | 50 |
18 Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1m25.930s | 123 |
19 Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas | 1m25.940s | 130 |
20 George Russell | Mercedes | 1m26.283s | 58 |
21 Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1m26.681s | 50 |
22 Franco Colapinto | Williams | 1m26.832s | 65 |
23 Daniel Ricciardo | AlphaTauri | 1m26.965s | 55 |
24 Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1m27.387s | 106 |
25 Alex Albon | Williams | 1m27.824s | 51 |