Esteban Ocon says that he is hopeful his podium result at the Monaco Grand Prix is the “start of something” for Alpine following a difficult start to the 2023 Formula 1 season.
After the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month, the team’s CEO Laurent Rossi publicly criticised his squad for its performance across the opening races.
Alpine had endured a handful of difficult grands prix, with Ocon and team-mate coming together while running inside the points in Australia, before another point-less round followed in Baku.
It scored a double-points finish in Miami and Ocon followed up in Monaco with a run to third place – his first podium since his victory in Hungary two years ago.
Ocon enjoyed a strong qualifying session in which he rocketed to third and didn’t relinquish the position during the race despite pressure from some of his rivals.
“We did bring some updates [to Monaco] that were supposed to be quite small but everything we had it went in the right direction today,” Ocon said.
“Yeah, it definitely felt good and I hope that this is the start of something, but I think we need to keep our feet to the ground, see where we are next weekend [in Spain].
“It’s going to be a good test. And then yeah, we’ll see.”
Ocon’s podium chances were almost derailed when he was hit by Carlos Sainz amid a battle for third, which inflicted damage on the Alpine car.
He then came under pressure from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton late on in the race in wet conditions, making his task of retaining third much more challenging.
“Today has been a little bit of a harder race,” he said. “We held that podium for a while, we had it secure but you know, I got a touch from Carlos at one stage, got damage on the back of the car.
“And then the rain shuffled everything again, and we had to choose to take the Inters at the right time.
“And we did so. And from there on I was under a huge amount of pressure from Lewis. We seem to be always the two fighting together when the conditions are like that!
“We know each other well in those conditions. And yeah, until the last lap, he was pushing flat-out. He was quicker in the wet section from [Turns] five to eight, and I was quicker on the dry sections.
“But yeah, it’s been an incredibly tough race to get under control but the reward is immense. So, I’m extremely pleased.”
