Esteban Ocon believes his and Alpine’s 2022 season was the best year, despite the lack of a standout Formula 1 result.
Ocon finished on the podium in both 2020 and 2021, peaking with a shock maiden victory in Hungary, while team-mate Fernando Alonso also secured a top-three result, in Qatar.
Alpine beat McLaren to fourth in this year’s Constructors’ Championship but neither Ocon nor Alonso finished on the podium, with Ocon’s fourth in the rain-hit race in Japan its best result.
“Obviously [not] getting a podium is probably the thing that we are the most sad about this year but in terms of optimising the results, getting the maximum out of the car, and being more consistent – that’s what we’ve done this year,” Ocon said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction.
“I’ve improved a lot as a driver, I feel as I said, I exploit more from the car, got the maximum out of it much more times, and the only thing we miss is the standout result.
“The thing we remember from last year is the win, the thing I will remember this year is I was much more close to what was a perfect season than last year.”
Ocon was also encouraged by the manner in which Alpine progressed through the course of 2022.
“It has been a strong year, on a personal level and also overall as a package of myself and the team – from where we started at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“Clearly we were behind the Haas, behind the Alfas, probably level with AlphaTauri and we clearly developed the car well, and gave good feedback early on for the team to develop the car and they translated them.
“By mid-year we clearly stepped up as a team, slowly but we stepped up. It has been a good season in that regard and I feel like I have performed well.”
