“It’s been pretty freaky”– Alpine confused with pace difference in both cars despite similar set-ups claims Esteban Ocon

Tanish Chachra | 05/10/2021
"It's been pretty freaky"– Alpine confused with pace difference in both cars despite similar set-ups claims Esteban Ocon

“It’s been pretty freaky”– Alpine is confused with the pace difference between both cars despite having an identical setup, as told by Esteban Ocon.

Esteban Ocon had a race to forget in Russia, where he finished P14 and was lapped by the race leaders. On the other hand, Fernando Alonso had a decent outing, securing a P8, which could have been even better if the rain hadn’t interfered.

According to Ocon, Alpine is confused by the disparity in the two performances, even though both drivers are running their cars on identical setups.

“The cars were very similar in terms of setup for the last three or four races, so pretty much identical,” he said. “And there has been quite a lot of deviation in this [Russia] race, and we don’t have the same comments [on the car] anymore.”

“We have a couple of ideas on what it could be and we are looking at fixing it obviously for the next race or the one after, so we are going to see.”

Losing ground with every lap

Ocon was given a new chassis to solve his early predicaments of the season; following it, he managed to give in some impressive performances, but with recurring problems, he informs that his team is investigating the issue.

“We managed to stick in a good position for the first couple laps, but after that, it’s been pretty freaky,” he said. “Pace wise we were lacking quite a lot of lap time lap by lap and losing ground to the car in front, not being able to attack or defend to any of them, to be fair,

“So quite a lot of things for us to review, quite a lot of work before getting to Turkey, but we’ll find what was wrong,” he added. Ocon then says that he is no explanation for the slowing pace, as he is still as comfortable in the car as before.

“There is no particular reason,” he said. “I feel good at the wheel, like I’ve been feeling good in Monza or Zandvoort.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Alpine Esteban Ocon

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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