"We can't make compromises": Esteban Ocon on Alpine's aggressive upgrades plan

Esteban Ocon feels Alpine needs to continue being aggressive in order to reach the pre-season goal that was set by the team. The team had a solid 2022 F1 season, finishing at P4 in the championship. This season, the team finds itself at P5 in the pecking order and has not had the best of starts either.

Esteban Ocon has struggled with misfortune in the first and third races, which cost the team a lot of points.

In Bahrain, it was contact on the first lap and the plethora of penalties that destroyed the Alpine driver's race. In Australia, it was the unfortunate clash with Pierre Gasly that put paid to any chances of him scoring points.

Talking about his return to racing in Baku, the Alpine driver talked about how he was consistently in touch with the team and visits the factory twice a week.

Esteban Ocon felt that the team had significant ground to make up in the coming races and that the team could not make any compromises when it came to developing the car.

He said:

"I'm at the factory at least one or two days a week. I've been to the aero department, I've seen the future drawings, I've seen future concepts of the car, what we are going to bring to the car. And there are some really interesting ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing them being produced and seeing them on the car."

He added:

"It's a lot of details. It's never one thing and that's the difficulty. A compromise somewhere can lead you to lose a little bit of performance elsewhere. And we can't make compromises at the moment because of where we are."

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Esteban Ocon under pressure after a dodgy start to the season

Esteban Ocon might be feeling the heat after a dodgy start to the 2023 F1 season. The Alpine driver should have had a stronger haul of points than he has right now.

One of the reasons behind it could be the propensity to get involved in accidents. This was something that Ocon was able to stay away from in 2022, and he was a prolific point scorer.

Ocon should have scored points in all three races this season, however, and has been pointless in two of them. For a driver that is trying to establish supremacy over his new teammate within the team, this is arguably not the kind of start he would have expected.