Ocon and team-mate Pierre Gasly have been each left asking for extra efficiency after they completed eighth and ninth within the Saudi Arabian GP.
The 2 vehicles ran a number of seconds aside for a lot of the race, with the drivers having fun with a short battle after the security automobile restart.
The A523’s tempo clearly indicated that it’s the fifth quickest automobile in the intervening time.
Ocon made it clear that the present efficiency just isn’t ok, including that the group is working onerous to make progress.
“No, we will not be happy with the place we’re in the intervening time,” he stated. “There are a few groups which have improved massively over the others.
“It reveals that it’s potential, and we have to maintain preventing, we have to maintain digging, maintain pondering, and that is the environment contained in the group as properly. However no, we will not be happy with the place we completed at present.”
Ocon was relieved to at the least rating factors after the nightmare of his a number of penalties in Bahrain.
“Blissful to lastly begin my season, let’s name it that manner,” he stated. “We maximised qualifying, we maximised the race as properly. We could not maintain the vehicles in entrance, actually.
“We thought in some unspecified time in the future it was going to be potential to carry the Ferraris, however they have been too quick, and so they pulled away in that center part of the second stint.
“So we simply managed the tempo, introduced the automobile again house. A powerful weekend as an entire, however we want just a little bit extra to have the ability to catch the vehicles in entrance. That is the place we have been at present. So hopefully we understood lots. And we will come again sturdy to the subsequent one.”
Ocon conceded that he hadn’t felt comfy within the automobile for a lot of the weekend.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523
Picture by: Alpine
“No, it hasn’t been a great feeling from the beginning,” he famous. “And particularly in FP3 the automobile actually did not really feel as I’d have preferred, the rear was very unfastened. The automobile was fairly tough to place collectively, and we turned it round, from FP3 to qualifying.
“So a robust job from my facet of the group to have been in a position to try this. We needed to battle to get a automobile the best way we needed and to trust within the automobile. As a result of for those who’re not assured right here, you are nowhere.”
Requested by Autosport if he was anticipating extra from the Jeddah race, Gasly agreed that he had larger hopes.
“I might be mendacity if I stated no,” he stated. “Personally I assumed that we’d have a bit extra tempo to hitch the battle forward of us.
“And sadly, we simply completed the place we’re in the intervening time, eighth and ninth, it is just about simply the place we’re. I feel we have been 10 seconds behind the Ferraris.
“Mercedes was positively sooner than we thought. And that is simply what we have in the intervening time. And we have to analyse what we will do higher.”
Gasly had a irritating qualifying session after declaring that the automobile felt higher than ever in FP3 – in distinction to his team-mate – and he was nonetheless not completely satisfied on Sunday.
“On the optimistic my second race with the group, the second time within the factors and issues kind of have been barely extra constant all through the weekend,” he stated.
“However nonetheless stuff to work on. I felt excellent on Saturday morning, however issues received a bit trickier in qualifying, and once more [in the race] I struggled a bit with the identical factor.
“So we’ll evaluation the whole lot. However general, I suppose it is solely the second race, so it is all about increase and studying and placing issues collectively as quick as potential.
“We kind of have our concepts on the place we have to enhance. It is nonetheless early to make a really sturdy conclusion on what and why. However typically, we all know what to enhance.”
