Every F1 fan knows how crazy the 2021 season of the sport was. A season full of madness and competition with the dominance of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Amidst all of that, there was a dark horse on the grid who was the only driver to win the race that season and did not belong to either Red Bull or Mercedes. Who was it? It was Esteban Ocon who took his first career win in Hungary after a chaotic, rainy start. But now, after two years, that win has been termed “circumstantial”.

A win that Ocon claimed after fending off challenges from Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso has been merely reduced to the aforementioned term. However, there is some truth to it, but it is not absolute. On the other hand, the reason behind the usage of the word is the lack of development at the Enstone-based factory of the French team, which has claimed only one victory since its return to the sport in 2016.

The performance of the Renault-powered Alpine was recently assessed on the Late Braking F1 podcast. The speaker claimed, “I don’t get the feeling that they’re ever going to be better than where they are now. They might gain a couple of places with Ricciardo there challenging for podiums. And obviously, Ocon did have a win in Hungary. That was very circumstantial, not taking away from his drive there. But other than that, what have they done since they came back in as Renault in 2016?”

“Seems like another year of the same. Yes, they might be sixth, seventh, or whatever place in the top ten. But again, kind of where they were last year. I don’t have any confidence that they’re ever going to be better than where they are now.”

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The progress at Alpine has been steady and, at times, stalled. The gap between the top four teams is much less than that between them and Alpine and the rest of the grid. To catch up with them, having targeted a P4 finish, Alpine would need a miracle to turn things around.

Esteban Ocon pushes for Aston Martin-like development

Before the 2023 season was underway, Alpine, which finished P4 in the last year’s championship, eyed reducing the deficit between it and Mercedes. But its attempt to inch closer to P3 was foiled as we saw the meteoric rise of Aston Martin. What made it worse for them was that it all happened after their bitter fallout with Fernando Alonso.

Still, after all the setbacks and enmity, Esteban Ocon wants the team to replicate Alonso’s success at Aston Martin. As quoted by Motorsport, the Frenchman said, “We have to in our mind think it is possible, otherwise there’s no point racing.”

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“I don’t know if Aston would have been able to do so in-season but if you take three or four months, it’s not the end of the season. Aston Martin has shown, and fair play to them, that it is possible to make a big step if you find the right things, so it is doable.”

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After having been at Alpine/Renault for over three years now, Ocon is finally requesting big moves.