Ocon looks back on lost year alongside Ricciardo: 'That didn't help'

Esteban Ocon looks back on his time at Alpine alongside Daniel Ricciardo. According to the Frenchman, the Covid virus and his year out of the sport played a big part in his down season in F1.

Ricciardo is stronger

Ocon will enter 2023 as Alpine's leader. The Frenchman has signed a multi-year deal that will keep him with the team through 2024, and with the departure of Fernando Alonso, he is the most experienced man in the team. The situation has changed a lot in that respect, as in 2020, Ocon was still being driven around the ears by Ricciardo on his return to F1.

Ocon was sidelined for a year and was given the chance to step in alongside Ricciardo at Renault in 2020. However, that did not go smoothly. In the qualifying duel with Ricciardo, Ocon was beaten 15-2 and an average difference of 0.261s. Things did not go great on Sunday either. Whereas Ricciardo scored 119 points, Ocon only came to 62.

Ocon gets off to a late start

''It was a frustrating season,'' Ocon says of it now two years later to The Race. ''I came in trying to understand everything as quickly as I could, but it was a COVID year. We didn’t have time to analyse in between races because we were doing triple-headers. So it was difficult,'' said the Frenchman.

''I only found out how to get that car fast by the last race, by the last two races really, when I got the podium [in the penultimate race in Bahrain] and when I outqualified Daniel in the last race. And it’s so frustrating that it was the last two races of the year. It was such a condensed year that if it was a normal year my mid-season I would have been on pace. But unfortunately, it was not the case.''

In 2021, Ocon took a step forward and even rewarded a win in Hungary with a new contract through 2024. With that, Ocon's future is set for the next few years, although with Pierre Gasly comes a driver within the team who would be happy to take on that role as front-runner himself.