Esteban Ocon: I hope there are many more podiums ahead!

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon did not hide his joy after the podium in Monaco…

Q: Esteban, you are the first Frenchman on the podium in Monaco since Olivier Panis in 1996, your first podium since your win in Hungary. What does this mean for you?
Esteban Ocon: Now I have no words. I’m in seventh heaven! You know, if you said before the weekend that we were going to finish in the top ten, I’d be happy. But we are not in the top ten, not in the top five, we are on the podium in Monaco.

This shows once again that we have always believed in success. The start of the season turned out to be difficult, but from the first session I was confident, I was able to attack more actively than usual, which allowed me to do a good lap in qualifying, and in Monaco I succeeded 90%.

But this time it wasn’t quite like that. The race turned out to be difficult. First I was third, but at one point I was hit by Carlos, then it started to rain and I had to change to intermediate tires in time. After that I was under a lot of pressure from Lewis. It seems that in such circumstances we always fight with him. He persevered until the last lap – Lewis was faster on the wet part of the track from turn five to turn eight, and I was on the dry. It was an incredibly difficult race, which paid off in the end, so I’m happy.

Q: Were you surprised by the speed of the car this weekend?
Esteban Ocon: Yes. We improved with each session. The weekend was different than usual in Monaco, this time I wasn’t afraid to attack so close to the barriers from the first session. That was amazing! I want to thank our entire team, everyone at Enstone and Weary. It’s a podium, not a win, not yet! But this stage is for them.

I wonder how it will turn out in Barcelona. There is a completely different track, which everyone knows well. This will be a good test of our competitiveness.

Q: Esteban, this success is especially important for the team after the recent criticism from Laurent Rossi. Are you sure you’re going in the right direction now?
Esteban Ocon: Yes. The result is very important. Formula 1 is unpredictable, you don’t know what the result will be. The fight is very tight, if the car has a little more speed it can radically change your weekend.

Everything worked well for us in Monaco. We are well prepared and have completed our task. As I said, we continue to believe in success. I hope there will be many podiums!