Esteban Ocon highlighted the importance of fifth place in the Austrian GP for the championship fight and said that new updates made a lot of difference in the team's car in Spielberg
The attention at the Austrian Grand Prix was, of course, practically all on the battle for first place between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who dueled at least three times on the track - with the Ferrari driver having the upper hand. However, Esteban Ocon calmly used a two-stop strategy to achieve a great result in fifth position, behind only the top three cars. After the race, the Frenchman couldn't see how Alpine could have achieved a better result.
"It was a perfect weekend in terms of performance and optimization of the result," said Ocon after the race. "It's not a win, but it feels like one because there was nothing better we could do in qualifying, in the sprint and in the race," the French driver pointed out.
"I had some hope that I could keep George [Russell] behind, but after the virtual safety-car restart he was too fast, there was no possibility to keep him under control and behind," he said. "[We got] 13 points [actually, it was 14 shots], and obviously we are tied with McLaren in the Constructors' World Championship," he continued.
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Fernando Alonso's teammate - who came 10th, adding one point - highlighted the importance of the updates that Alpine brought to the car in the last race, the British GP, as the main reason for the team's performance leap. To give you an idea, fifth place at the Red Bull Ring was Ocon's best result so far in the 2022 season.
"It's very positive," Ocon stressed. "I'm very happy to see that the [upgrade] we brought to Silverstone made a good difference - we can really see that now. I hope the next ones will be big like that," he tweeted.
Finally, Esteban hopes that Alpine will keep updating the car in the upcoming races to be able to take the challenge to Mercedes, which still has a superior pace and runs alone as the third force in the championship at the moment.
"We still have work to do to be able to challenge Mercedes, because they are still very fast," the Frenchman opined. "So, if the team can bring more stuff like that, we will make it! I'm going to France with confidence and the team is going there with confidence too, there is no doubt that we will perform there," he finished.