27-year-old F1 driver thinks lack of reliability cost him top ten finish in 2023

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Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has admitted that he was unhappy with the level of inconsistency he suffered during the 2023 Formula 1 season.

Ocon was speaking after the post-season test in Abu Dhabi where he topped the time sheets as the campaign finally came to an end.

Esteban Ocon has had a middling season this year, finishing twelfth in the Drivers’ Championship.

He was joined at the French team by Pierre Gasly after he departed AlphaTauri although there’s always been talk that they don’t have the best relationship.

That wouldn’t have been helped by the two of them coming together in Australia, denying them both some valuable points.

Ocon retired on six occasions in 2023 and he’s admitted he’s unhappy with the reliability of his car.

Back-to-back retirements at Silverstone and the Hungaroring would have been particularly disappointing.

It ended up coinciding with a big shake-up within the Alpine team that saw team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane leave the team.

That disruption coincided with Gasly recording a Sprint Race podium in Belgium and a third-place finish in Zandvoort.

Unfortunately, Ocon missed out again on those weekends and he’ll be hoping to put those woes behind him next year.

Ocon unhappy with reliability issues in 2023

Speaking about the season that’s just finished, Ocon said: “Unfortunately, not consistent enough and too many DNFs which has cost us obviously a lot this season. We could have probably been in the top 10 in the drivers’ championship, probably closer as well to the other place in the constructors’, but that’s how it is.

“We keep on working and I’m pretty sure good things will come. I trust that team to do a good job over the winter, everyone is hungry for more, to keep improving, and that’s what we are aiming for.”

With the regulations not changing between 2023 and 2024 in Formula 1, the reliability issues that Ocon was unhappy about should be ironed out over the winter.

He will know that he may have missed out on an opportunity to finish above Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the standings as a result of not finishing six races.

It will be interesting to see where Alpine are going into next season.

They don’t have the same resources as the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren so closing the gap to the top five teams will be difficult.

They’ve got a strong driver pairing but becoming a front-runner before the next major rule change might be a stretch too far.