Esteban Ocon tells Alpine to be ‘humble’ in early warning for 2024 F1 season

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Esteban Ocon has told Alpine to be ‘humble’ and ‘realistic’ as there is a chance the team starts the 2024 F1 season on the backfoot after revolutionising their new car.

The Renault-owned outfit have taken the covers off their A524 and revealed drastic changes to their A523 which contested last season. Alpine have moved to introduce the entirely new design philosophy after falling from fourth in the constructors’ table in 2022 to sixth in 2023.

Alpine were in no man’s land in the teams’ championship last year on 120 points, 160 shy of Aston Martin in fifth and 92 better off than Williams in seventh. Ocon scored 58 of their tally to claim P12 in the drivers’ table. He finished last year behind teammate Pierre Gasly in P11.

Alpine give Ocon and Gasly an entirely new car for the 2024 F1 season

Ocon had matched his career-best finish in the drivers’ standings of P8 for Force India back in 2017 over the 2022 season. But even returning to the podium in P3 at the Monaco GP for the first time since winning the Hungarian GP in 2021 failed to let him build on those results.

Gasly also secured Alpine silverware in 2023 with a P3 finish at the Dutch GP. He also ended the Sprint at the Belgian GP in P3 after joining the Enstone natives from AlphaTauri last year. But Gasly failed to score any points in 11 of the 22 Grand Prix and so did Ocon in 10, as well.

Ocon urges his Renault-owned team to be ‘humble’ and ‘realistic’

So, in an attempt to move back up the constructors’ championship in 2024, Alpine have now adopted what technical director Matt Harman calls an ‘aggressive’ philosophy. The Renault-owned team hope it allows them to fight for more than just the occasional podium this year.

But Ocon has urged Alpine to be ‘realistic’ about where they start the 2024 F1 season with a new philosophy. The 27-year-old hopes his Enstone natives can start the year strongly at the Bahrain GP. Yet it will be more important where they are come the middle of the campaign.

“I don’t know where we’ll be to start with,” Ocon explained to RacingNews365. “It doesn’t matter where we start, exactly – it matters when we are in mid-season. I hope we’re going to start near the front but we have to be humble and realistic.

“It’s a new concept, there’s a chance it doesn’t go too well at the start. But the rise and the improvement is what we need.”

F1 flies to Sakhir for the sole pre-season test between February 21 and 23 before the racing starts with the Bahrain GP on March 2. A mechanical issue stopped Ocon from finishing the 2023 season-opening Bahrain GP, which also saw the Alpine driver receive three penalties.

Ocon received his first penalty of the 2023 F1 season for an inaccurate starting position but then merited another one for failing to serve that penalty properly during his pit stop. Alpine then watched him receive another penalty for speeding in the pit lane as Gasly finished in P9.