Esteban Ocon sets Alpine F1 2024 goal and ‘doesn’t care if it’s realistic’

Esteban Ocon wants Alpine to close the gap to those at the top and does not care if that sounds “realistic.”

Alpine were one of the teams that appeared to take a step back in 2023 with the likes of Aston Martin and McLaren leapfrogging them while a number of structural changes took place behind the scenes.

But with the staff swaps sorted out, Ocon is hopeful they can push on in 2024 and close the gap to those ahead of them.

Esteban Ocon wants Aston Martin style performance leap

Ocon had a new team-mate in the form of Pierre Gasly for 2023 and finished behind his fellow Frenchman but neither will claim to be too happy with their final standings.

Having secured P4 in 2022, Alpine had ambitions of consolidating that spot but now find themselves back to square one.

“We need to work on the performance of the car, some teams have done a better job than us in progressing and getting stronger updates into the cars,” Ocon told RacingNews365.

“That’s what we need to try and change. Obviously, we’re already working on the 2024 car in the simulator. We took it earlier in the year, which should help for our 2024 campaign.”

Ocon looked at the examples of McLaren and Aston Martin as teams able to make big jumps and wanted Alpine to do similar, even if it was not “realistic.”

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“I don’t know if it’s realistic, I don’t care to be honest,” the 27-year-old said.

“That’s what we have to look at. That’s where we have to aim. We want to close the gap, we want to get more competitive.

“We’re not going into the new year thinking otherwise. Because otherwise we would never be winners.”

“When people ask me [what we need to improve], [I find it] quite funny because it’s never one thing in Formula 1. It’s always a lot of details, a lot of different departments that are just lacking a little bit of something that’s showing up in the pace of the car.

“That’s what we need to be stronger at, it’s a little bit everywhere. I would say we are not the best straight line or not the best in corners or managing our tyres. It’s a little bit of everything. So we need to keep working hard and hopefully we’ll find some good performance.”

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