Esteban Ocon says one F1 team has straight-line speed that can’t be matched

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Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has admitted he was shocked by the speed of Alex Albon’s Williams car in Canada.

Ocon was speaking after a solid eighth-place finish at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The French driver was gone from strength to strength since a tough start to the season.

The 26-year-old recorded the third podium of his F1 career in Monaco and has finished in the points in each of his last four races.

He’s also now nearly doubled the points tally of new teammate Pierre Gasly after just eight races.

Ocon admitted he was actually disappointed not to have finished in a better position on Sunday.

When the safety car came out following George Russell’s shunt with the wall on the exit of turn nine, Ocon was in fourth place.

However, when everyone pitted under the safety car, the two Ferraris and Sergio Perez stayed out.

Ocon couldn’t find the speed to overtake the Williams of Alex Albon when the race restarted.

It meant all three cars maintained their position ahead of Ocon and the Thai driver took the chequered flag before him too.

Ocon amazed by speed of Williams

Asked about his performance in Montreal, Ocon said: “We were fourth before all the rounds of stops, so we definitely need to review what happened and why we lost to some other cars after all stops.

“We ended up unfortunately behind Alex [Albon], it was good racing, but you can’t pass them!

“I think it doesn’t matter what car you have, their straight-line speed is pretty dangerous and we can’t try and do any moves so it was good racing also with Lando [Norris] in the end.

“But, the consequence is that we end up behind so we lost some points.”

Alpine currently sit in no man’s land in the Constructors’ Championship.

Fourth place Ferrari are already 78 points clear of the French team, while McLaren sit 25 points behind them.

Ocon and Gasly will hope Alpine can find another gear as the season goes on to try and challenge the top four teams.

If the Alpine had the speed of the Williams that Ocon spoke about, they could challenge much further up the grid.