Alpine’s French driver Esteban Ocon praised the race efficiency and the tyre management of his A524 after having scored points on the Belgian Grand Prix.
Esteban Ocon began from P9 on the grid, however he misplaced out to Max Verstappen early on. The Frenchman saved his head down and battled arduous, overcutting his rivals late on.
The one-time F1 race winner had a tyre benefit in comparison with Daniel Ricciardo, and chased down the Australian for the ultimate level on supply. With the disqualification for George Russell, Ocon was promoted to P9, taking two points from Spa.
Ocon commented: “I’m happy to have scored some extent for the staff this afternoon after some arduous fights on observe. We had good tempo all through, sufficient straight-line velocity to overhaul down the Kemmel Straight and in the top, it was sufficient for the highest ten.
“There are positives, in fact, like our normal race tempo and tyre management. I do suppose we might have completed possibly a place increased up had we executed issues barely otherwise, however that’s up for us to evaluation and enhance.
“We made a good decision in focusing on race preparation and setting up the car suitably for that. I am staying in Spa for a few days for the Pirelli tyre test before the summer break.”
His team-mate Pierre Gasly was caught in a DRS prepare for many of the afternoon, however performed the staff sport at Spa. He let Ocon previous when the Frenchman was on more energizing tyres in the closing phases of the 44-lap Spa race.
“It was not race at present in Spa,” started Gasly. “It was robust to battle with automobiles round us as we lacked straight line velocity and we needed to handle some temperature points amongst different issues.
“I really feel like we missed a trick with our technique at present – as did different automobiles – with the one-stop clearly potential. These are issues we should evaluation as I do know we will do quite a bit higher as a staff.
“In recent weeks we have not been good enough and we must do better when we return to racing after the summer break. It’s been a tough first part of the season for us but I’m pleased with some of the things we are bringing to the car. We must keep finding further improvements to the car and come back hungrier to do better,” added Gasly.
DEADP10L ~ Good tempo, good overtakes, good wanting automotive, good wanting swimsuit. In the points too 🎯 hey summer time! 😎 🏖️ pic.twitter.com/tt9uBQE9gI
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) July 28, 2024
Alpine staff boss, Bruno Famin, who is about to go away the French marque’s F1 division, mentioned: “We finish the primary a part of the season with an necessary level right here in Spa. It was a tricky race stuffed with attention-grabbing choices on automotive set-up and technique.
“From the place we started this season to the place we are actually, clearly, we’ve got made vital strides forwards. It has been a turbulent 2024 season up to now however one the place we’ve got dug deep as a staff and been in a position to rectify and enhance drastically our automotive efficiency.
“We launched improve right here in Spa and there may be extra in the pipeline for the rest of the 12 months. We will proceed to construct, proceed to study and proper now we’re wanting ahead to a well-deserved summer time shutdown.”
