'We have a good package and can compete with teams ahead of us'

Esteban Ocon is having a good season. The Frenchman managed to put his Alpine on the podium in Monaco, and partly as a result, he is currently 'the best of the rest'. Speaking to F1only.fr, he looks ahead to the upcoming race weekend.

Ocon is currently ninth in the championship with 29 points. With Pierre Gasly 15 points away, the man who won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix is currently the leading driver within the French team. Alpine finds itself in fifth place in the constructors' championship, with a big gap towards number four, Ferrari.

Last year, Ocon finished fifth, and this year too the Frenchman is confident about the race weekend: "We have a good package, capable of competing with the teams ahead of us. It's nice to be back at Spielberg, because I really enjoy coming back here. I had a good result here last year and I hope to have another good weekend."

As for the track, it is interesting, the Alpine driver says: "It offers some interesting challenges, with slow, tight corners contrasting with the faster turns 6 and 7 on the inside. The gradients add to the challenge and make for some tricky braking zones. But it's fun to drive here and I hope we can take advantage of the Sprint format to pick up some valuable points."