“We are ready!” – Esteban Ocon is pleased with how the 2020 season ended for Renault and is confident of a successful debut campaign for the re-branded Alpine F1 team next season.
Renault had a decent outing this season, finishing fifth in the Constructors Standings, crucially ahead of Ferrari. Frenchman Esteban Ocon, after starting the season slowly, did well to take the podium in the Sakhir Grand Prix. He finished P12 in the championship in Renault’s final season, with Alpine F1 the new avatar from next season.
“Overall, the progress has been very strong I’m pretty happy with how I’ve ended the season in terms of pace and performance and how we are working with the team together. That is a lot stronger to how it has been to start with, and I feel I have gained some performance and confidence in the car and that’s very good. We will make sure we are on top of the detail next year and that we are ready.”
Ocon had an underwhelming season compared to his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who’s moved to McLaren. He suffered four race retirements and was quite often not among the points. This did have an impact on Renault not finishing P3 or P4 in place of McLaren and Racing Point, respectively. But with double-time champion Fernando Alonso for Renault set to join the Alpine F1 party, Ocon is optimistic for 2021.
“It’s a bit of a shame we missed third-place in the constructors this weekend, but there is a lot of positives to take onboard with this year and things that we didn’t do perfectly right as well. We will work for next year, taking the positives and canceling any negatives, and then we should be in a pretty strong position next year.”
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