27-year-old F1 driver admits he’s already been testing 2024 car for months

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Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has admitted he’s been testing the 2024 model of their car on the simulator since September.

The Alpine driver’s comments, relayed by Motorsport Week, highlight the mood amongst several teams on the grid with two races still to go.

The hype is growing around the Las Vegas Grand Prix right now, but several teams don’t have a huge amount to race for.

Max Verstappen has already stormed away with the Drivers’ Championship and has accrued so many points he would have won the Constructors’ Championship on his own too.

The likes of Oscar Piastri have already secured their spot in the standings as have Alpine.

Both drivers are still fighting for bragging rights with Pierre Gasly holding a 16-point advantage over Esteban Ocon.

They’ve both secured podiums this season which means the gap could still theoretically be closed.

However, 2024 is Alpine’s focus now and Ocon has admitted he’s been testing the new car a fair amount already.

The French team will be desperate to close the gap on the top five teams next year.

They’ve got a strong enough driver line-up to compete at that level but sit in no man’s land at the moment as they’re faster than the bottom four constructors who are battling for seventh place right now.

Ocon already testing Alpine’s 2024 car

Speaking about Alpine’s preparations for next year, Ocon said: “Obviously the team is very well aware of where they have to go, in terms of improving the current situation.

“I’ve been driving the car quite a bit in the simulator, the 2024 model. Quite early on, compared to usual.

“So that has been a very good thing, we’ve been able to tackle some issues and to have some early feedback, in comparison to really driving it end of November or December, we were able to do that early September.

“But, until you put the car down, you don’t really know where that’s going to be exactly.

“We can compare the two cars, it’s been interesting, but there’s still going to be months of development and wind tunnel time during the winter, and that’s going to be different to how we test the car at the shakedown but also different to how it starts, I guess, at the first race.”

Ocon and Alpine won’t be the only team testing their 2024 car on the simulator already.

The mission for every constructor is to somehow close the gap on Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

They’ve been so far ahead of the pack for so long this year that they’ve almost certainly been concentrating on next year’s car for some time.

That might worry every other team on the grid, but it’s up to them to find a way to challenge for the title in 2024.