Esteban Ocon has admitted it’s unlikely Alpine will be able to win a Formula 1 race this year.
Alpine have already won one Grand Prix with Ocon at the helm, at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, but in 2022 they finished over 300 points behind Mercedes and were not on the podium.
“I don’t think that’s where we set ourselves,” Ocon to selected media, including Total-Motorsport.com.
“If we put the car in Bahrain and it’s performing, we speak after. At the moment, it’s not realistic.
“We’ll see. They could be a surprise we’ve had in the past, we were not expecting the Brawn to be a winning car in 2009, so we’ll see.”
Pleased with the evolution of the 2023 car
Ocon has been with Enstone since 2020, having spend a year as Mercedes reserve driver after being dropped by Racing Point at the end of 2018.
Despite doubts over whether he can end his two-year win drought Ocon is pleased with the evolution of Alpine’s package which he hopes will translate into on-track gains.
“It’s a good evolution to 2022,” said Ocon. “I’m a mechanical guy. I like to get close to the bodywork, the suspension side of things, and have a deep look at how parts are made.
“If we can, be fourth but try and get much closer and maybe fight for third. That’s a completely different dimension.
“The 2022 car looked like a toy in comparison to what now have. The level of detail on how the parts are made in regards to weight saving, everything looks like a proper race car.
“It means that the team took a step up again. It was a step from 21 to 22 in the beginning, and now it’s a huge step up in 2023, So we’ll see if that translates to performance.”
