The Alpine team had two cars to score points in Mexico City, but Fernando Alonso retired with an engine failure. His teammate Esteban Ocon finished eighth but suffered from overheating throughout the race.
Alpine’s lead over McLaren in the battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship was reduced to seven points.
Esteban Ocon (8th): “The team had a difficult race. It was important for us to earn points with two cars, but unfortunately Fernando got out.
As for my car, in the second half of the race there were problems with the cooling. I had to move so I couldn’t keep up with the pace of the McLaren and I was just under ten seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo.
We still have the advantage in the Constructors’ Championship, but we have to make sure that the problems don’t happen again if we want to keep fourth.”
Fernando Alonso (retirement): “Unfortunately, after a strong start and good parts, I couldn’t finish in a race that should have ended with points. I was very fast on medium and hard tires but with eighteen laps to go, one of the cylinders in my engine gave out, so I had to stop despite my best efforts.
The weekends in Austin and Mexico City went really well for me, so it’s a shame I didn’t get the points I deserved. There are still two races to go where you have to do everything you can to earn maximum points in the battle for fourth position.”
Otmar Safnauer, Team Principal: “We knew the race was going to be tough due to the uniqueness of Mexico City, but we still leave disappointed that only one of our cars has seen the checkered flag. Unfortunately Fernando failed one of the cylinders on lap 52 – on five cylinders the engine lost significant power so it was difficult to count on points. In the end we couldn’t solve the problem and Fernando had to get out.
Esteban had problems with the cooling, so he had to kiss periodically, resulting in a significant loss of time. He was able to finish eighth and earn important points.
We know reliability is key in the championship battle, but it let us down in the last few races. I am confident that we can improve the situation in the last two races of the season.”
Source: F1 News
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