27-year-old driver admits McLaren and Aston Martin have done much ‘better job’ than his team

Follow us on Google Discover

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has admitted that both McLaren and Aston Martin have done a much better job with the development of their cars than the French team.

Ocon was speaking to RacingNews365 after a frustrating campaign where he was regularly fighting for minor points alongside teammate Pierre Gasly.

After Fernando Alonso moved on to join Aston Martin, the French team were able to recruit a home-grown pairing.

While they’ve not always got on particularly well, they’ll be more annoyed with the performance of the car.

Despite racing under the Alpine name, the team is essentially Renault’s works team, being the only outfit on the grid to use their engines.

However, there are issues with the power unit that mean they can’t get as much horsepower out of the engine as they would like and the chassis has been described as ‘too bulky’.

Plenty of teams made big steps forward in 2023, including McLaren and Aston Martin.

Esteban Ocon has suggested that he’s not comparing the development of his Alpine to those teams, but will know how important it is to keep up with their rivals.

The 27-year-old won’t be keen to wait until 2026 when the regulations change for Alpine to be competitive.

They’ve got some big strides to make to catch up to the top five teams even if both of their drivers managed to secure a podium last year.

Both Ocon and Gasly will be desperate for that to become more of a regular occurrence rather than a surprising event.

Ocon not worried about Alpine development

Speaking about the next steps Alpine need to take, Ocon said: “We need to work on the performance of the car, some teams have done a better job than us in progressing and getting stronger updates into the cars.

“That’s what we need to try and change. Obviously, we’re already working on the 2024 car in the simulator. We took it earlier in the year, which should help for our 2024 campaign.”

The developments of Aston Martin and McLaren in 2023 prompted several drivers to highlight them as inspiration going forward.

When asked if it’s realistic to produce similar gains with development next year, Ocon said: “I don’t know if it’s realistic, I don’t care to be honest.

“That’s what we have to look at. That’s where we have to aim. We want to close the gap, we want to get more competitive.

“We’re not going into the new year thinking otherwise. Because otherwise, we would never be winners.”

Alpine and Ocon will both know how important this winter is for the development of their car going forward.

Most teams won’t want to spend too much time or money on their cars in 12 months knowing that the rules are set to change in 2026.

Therefore, the work they do now will have a huge influence on their performance over the next two years.

Ocon is undoubtedly quick even if he is prone to making the odd mistake. Having the right car underneath him will at least give him more opportunities to score points and hopefully avoid retiring from matches as often.