Ocon feels “good” after going from P16 to P4 in Las Vegas, while Gasly laments “very messy” problems.
Ocon feels “good” after going from P16 to P4 in Las Vegas, while Gasly laments “very messy” problems.
Alpine started the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 4th place with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
But during the race the role of the driver changed. Ocon finished fourth and Gasly had to settle for 11th. Ocon was discouraged on Friday night after missing Q1 during qualifying and ultimately finished 16th on the grid at the Las Vegas Strip circuit.
But this weekend the Frenchman, wearing a Deadpool-inspired helmet, avoided a first-round upset by jumping to eighth on the opening lap, before showing strong pace throughout the race to move up to fourth by the end series.
“It feels so good!” Okon said. “I’m back to life after yesterday…I got hurt yesterday, but the healing power of Deadpool’s helmet changed that today! It was definitely a crazy race. I avoided wear and stiffness [of the tires] and went from P16 back to P4.
I just feel good.”
When asked how he got everything right on race day, Ocon replied: “Never stop believing. I thought this weekend was very strong for us in terms of achievements.
Now we can put the car where we want.
We were very strong on the tires this weekend. “Unfortunately we couldn’t qualify because we saw what happened yesterday. This circuit is very good for overtaking.
We knew we could use our speed on the straights to overtake and we did.
So we are proud of the team.
What they did this weekend, both in qualifying and in the competition, was exceptional. So we can be very proud of ourselves.
“He was… In fact, for five or six races after Singapore, the planets were not in our favor,” added Ocon, who scored more points (12 points) in Las Vegas than in the last eight rounds (11 points).
“Today everything changed and we got a good result. I hope we can continue like this and get good results in Abu Dhabi until the end of this season. “If we can do that, we can finish the season well.” Gasly blamed the solid tires for the points loss.
Gasly looked like a risk from the Alps coming into the race with his best qualifying performance of the season.
But after a strong start to the race, sitting 3rd during the lap 29 safety car restart, Gasly blamed the switch to hard tires for dropping to P11 after a fierce battle with Ocon.
“I think I started well. I was fourth and I think I was third at some points,” said Gasly, who reported a battery problem mid-race.
“But installing those hard tires was very confusing for us. I got on the tires early and had no speed for most of the second part of the race. I tried to defend myself as best I could, but I was so frustrated after making such a good choice.
“But on the other hand, I think as a team we can take a lot of positives out of the weekend. Yesterday we put a car in P4 and today we put another car in P4 so we have to do it.
“We’re always evaluating and looking at where we can do better. But data was limited.
“Of course we’ll look again, but I don’t think it’s the main problem, especially the tyres, so we have to understand what happened.”
Alpine entered the season finale confident of their sole 6th place in the constructors’ standings for 2023. This is two places down from 2022, 153 points ahead of fifth-placed Aston Martin and 92 points behind Williams in seventh place.
