Ocon: Alpine not yet fast enough on “pure pace” for F1 podium

Esteban Ocon admits Alpine simply isn’t fast enough to finish on the Formula 1 podium on “pure pace” in 2021.
Esteban Ocon (FRA) Alpine F1 Team on the grid.
Esteban Ocon (FRA) Alpine F1 Team on the grid.
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Under the Renault🐷 guise, the team scored three podiums in 2020 on its way to fifth place in the constructors’ championship.

After a slow start to the season in 2021, the Enstone-based outfit enjoyed strong performance🀅s ꦑat Portimao and Barcelona to get its season back on track.

Ocon and Fernando Alonso finished seventh and eighth in Portugal, while an unsuccessful one-stop strategy in Spain meant the Frenchman didn't convert fifth on the꧒ grid into a big points haul. 

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When asked about Alpine’s chances of finishing on the podium this season, Ocon said: “I think anything is possible in the race. Last year when Daniel did the podium tꦉhere’s been some things happening in the race, when I got the podium in Bahrain there have been some things happening ඣin the race. 

“On pure pace and if everybody is on track, no we are not fast enough for the podium yet, but we will pus🌌h to make it happen as we did last yeꦡar. So it’s not going to be easy but anything can happen in these crazy years that we are living in.”

Ocon is hopeful he will continue his impressive run of qualifying performaꦑnces in Monaco this weeken✃d, given that overtaking is very difficult.

“Until we put the car there and we do the qualifying we will not know exactly, but I think looking at our performance in qualifying we should be in good shape in Monaco,” O🌞c𝐆on added.

“I hope that we are going to be able to perform as good, so I think we can give a fight to the Ferraris and the other cars around in qualifying. I’m pretty confident. The place we have to focus - the race - in Mo꧙naco it’s hard to overtake so it’s less of a crꦺitical point, but yes I think we are a bit slower than Ferrari and a bit slower than McLaren at the moment on pure pace in the race.”

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