Ocon: "The harmony with Alonso allowed us the 5th place"

The 2021 season will go down in history as one of the most intense ever for the duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, valid for the conquest of the title. Yet, with the exception of the most talked about episodes that have put the standard bearers of Red Bull and Mercedes in the foreground, the world championship has also reserved other twists, some of which are truly unexpected and surprising.

Among these, the victory obtained from Esteban Ocon In the Hungarian Grand Prix, which turned out to be worth the first success career for the French driver and the first absolute affirmation of theAlpine, Renault’s ‘heir’ team that made its debut this season. A team that allowed the 25-year-old not only to hear the toll of ‘La Marseillaise’ – for the first time since Pierre Gasly at Monza in 2020 – but also to compete the entire season alongside an experienced driver such as Fernando Alonso, returned to Formula 1 after leaving at the end of 2018.

Ocon himself spoke of these emotions, summing up a championship memorable for him as follows: “Overall, I would say that it has been a very positive season for us as a team – he has declared – after a 2020 past to get back to the rhythms of Formula 1, I felt much more prepared and ready for 2021, and I think this has been seen in our performances. I have been very happy with the form since the beginning of the year, especially with the memorable qualifying sessions in Portugal and Spain. When we had the drop in form between France and Austria, I was very encouraged by my and the team’s reaction to dig deep and find a solution. That hard work paid off initially at Silverstone, before the win in Hungary. I felt that we worked well all season together with the engineers, the mechanics, in both factories and of course with Fernando on the track. That coherence and that union is definitely the key which helped us achieve the fifth place in the constructors’ championship. We weren’t the fifth fastest car each week, but we were there in terms of extracting potential, and that’s what we can be satisfied with when we reflect on this season. This hard work must continue into 2022 – he concluded – and I’m excited to see what we can achieve ”.