Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 team driver, shared insights on the challenges he faced during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He revealed that these battles highlighted the weaknesses of the Alpine 2024 Formula 1 car. The team had a tough start to the season, with their challenging A524 proving to be uncompetitive and overweight. Despite this, Ocon managed to take advantage of Kevin Magnussen’s tactics and secure a midfield position. He also helped his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, secure a point by overtaking Yuki Tsunoda. Ocon acknowledged that, although he dropped in the rankings towards the end of the race, he learned valuable lessons about the limitations of the Alpine car. He emphasized the need for improvements in the upcoming races and expressed his commitment to working with the team to find solutions.
When asked if he was encouraged by being able to compete with other cars in Jeddah, unlike in Bahrain the previous week, Ocon responded by saying that he couldn’t really fight. However, somehow they managed to stay ahead of them. He acknowledged that in a normal circuit, not being able to fight is a normal situation and they are still lacking in that aspect.
Nevertheless, Ocon firmly believed that the second race of the season highlighted the areas where Alpine needs to improve to compete with their rivals. He mentioned that they were able to identify several things to work on compared to Bahrain, but there is still plenty of room for improvements and they are well aware of that.
The instruction given by Haas to Magnussen to slow down and help Hulkenberg build an advantage before stopping in the pits has generated controversy and has been a topic of discussion since the end of the race. Ocon commented on this, stating that Magnussen’s team was very strict with him in this regard and described the situation as chaotic.
He also mentioned that this presented good opportunities for him, as he would not have been able to fight otherwise. Overall, he described the race as insane.
Magnussen was facing a possible 20-second penalty for two infractions, and both RB and Williams expressed their intention to discuss the matter with the FIA.
Ocon admitted that Magnussen’s strong defense during the race was considered a tough race, but personally he likes this type of competition and has no complaints about it. He mentioned that it is up to the FIA to decide if it was too much or not, but the traffic created some challenging situations for him while he was behind.
