Ocon admits he ‘hasn’t had fun behind the wheel for a while’ · RaceFans

Esteban Ocon says he has not had fun at the wheel of an F1 car for “a while” as the team slump to ninth in the championship.

Alpine have endured a poor campaign this year, starting the season as the slowest team and undergoing several key personnel changes through the first half of the year. Despite improving their car and scoring points at several rounds, Alpine fell to ninth in the constructors’ championship last weekend in Baku, behind Williams.

Ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Ocon admitted that he has not been enjoying struggling to score points in recent rounds, having only recorded one top ten finish over the last seven races, at the Belgian Grand Prix.

“Williams are on a very upward trajectory, on their side,” he said. “They’ve been very quick all season – probably quicker than us most times.

“At the moment we are ninth, obviously, in the constructors’ championship. It’s reflecting a little bit on the car’s performance, unfortunately. The whole team is trying their best to try and improve the situation, but it’s going to be a tough one to try and recover.

“We haven’t given up, obviously. We are giving it our best until the end of the year. We start this weekend trying to have a better one than Baku. It’s been full of problems and issues and we just want to be able to build something good and to get some fun at the wheel for me – which is most important and something I didn’t have for a while now.”

Ocon is entering his final races with Alpine in 2024 having raced with the team since 2020 when they were known as Renault. He will join Haas next season.

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He finished 15th in Baku last weekend after dealing with multiple car problems in practice and hitting a barrier in qualifying. Having wanted to end his time at Alpine on a high note, Ocon says his struggles with the team over the season have put a dampener on his final chapter with the Enstone-based squad.

“It’s been difficult,” he admitted. “That’s very clear.

“We know we were not able to build anything in Baku, having missed so much running and having so many issues with the car itself. So that’s what we’re going to try and do here; build confidence, have laps under the belt, being able to improve the car step-by-step every single time.

“Even if it’s been difficult, I’m not giving up. I still want to finish the chapter with this team on a high. It hasn’t gone the way that I would have liked, at the moment. It’s a pretty sad end, unfortunately. But hopefully we can catch things up and be on the better end for the remaining of the season.”