Okon: We hope for a good weekend

Thanks to undeniable progress, the last three races have not been good for Alpine, but Esteban Ocon hopes to turn things around…

Ask the Weekend in Austria turned out to be difficult. How do you rate it now that a few days have passed?
Esteban Ocon: An ambiguous weekend. We had a decent sprint on Saturday, but overall we are dissatisfied with how it went. In Austria, our weaknesses became apparent, especially against our closest rivals, who are currently a few tenths ahead of us.

Now we have to wait for the home stage for the team from Enstone, we hope for a good weekend and we will work hard to get good results.

Q: Last weekend everyone was just talking about respecting track boundaries and fines being received after the race. What do you think?
Esteban Ocon: Something has to be done, because it is not normal if during the race the boundaries of the track would be crossed more than 1200 times. Strong recommendations were made to revise the course next year to avoid these issues, including the use of gravel traps.

I also think something needs to change in the current system, which analyzes violations live during the race. If the team knew I was going off track and risking a fine, they would have warned me and I, for my part, would have corrected the steering. We all try to do our best. Sanctions sometimes happen, but change is clearly needed in the future.

Q: There is a chance to turn the tide this weekend at Silverstone. Do you enjoy racing on this historic track?
Esteban Okon: Silverstone is a legendary smooth and fast track, with fast, medium and slow corners.

The famous Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel connection on modern machines with high downforce is very cool. The circuit is known for its fast corners and short straights, it is in an open area so the wind can have a significant and sometimes unpredictable effect on our cars.

This weekend we are going to try out some new products. I hope they will allow us to achieve more after a difficult weekend in Austria.

We hope to satisfy both the British fans and our base in Enstone, which is very close by. This is a bit of a home race for us, I’m looking forward to it with impatience.