Esteban Ocon, a driver for the Alpine F1 Team, has shared insights into the challenges he faced during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He revealed that these battles highlighted the weaknesses of Alpine’s 2024 Formula 1 car. The team has had a difficult start to the season, with their A524 challenger proving to be both uncompetitive and overweight. Despite this, Ocon was able to take advantage of Kevin Magnussen’s tactics and secure a midfield position. He also helped his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, gain a point by overtaking Yuki Tsunoda. Ocon acknowledged that although he slipped down the order towards the end of the race, he learned valuable lessons about the limitations of the Alpine car. He emphasized the need for improvement in future races and expressed his commitment to working with the team to find solutions.
When asked if he was encouraged by the fact that he was 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, they somehow managed to get in front of them. He acknowledged that on a normal circuit, not being able to fight is a normal situation and they are still lacking in that aspect.
Despite this, Ocon firmly believed that the second race of the season highlighted the areas that Alpine needs to improve in order to compete with their rivals. He mentioned that they were able to identify several things that they can work on compared to Bahrain, but there is still a lot of room for improvement and they are well aware of that.
The instruction given by Haas to Magnussen to slow down and help Hulkenberg build a gap before pitting has sparked controversy and has been a topic of discussion since the race ended. Ocon commented on this, stating that Magnussen’s team has been very strict with him in that regard and described the situation as chaotic.
He also mentioned that it presented good opportunities for him as he wouldn’t have been able to fight otherwise. Overall, he described the race as insane.
Magnussen was facing a potential 20-second time 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 tough racing, but personally, he enjoys that kind of competition and has no complaints about it. He mentioned that it’s up to the FIA to decide if it was too much or not, but the traffic created some challenging situations for him being behind.