Whereas the tempo of the Frenchman and team-mate Pierre Gasly was impacted by injury picked up following an opening-lap conflict, Ocon doesn’t suppose that must be an excuse for an total lack of efficiency.
Whereas each drivers had been left dealing with a downforce deficit – with Gasly mentioned to have misplaced round 33 factors in comparison with Ocon’s 15 – the stoop down the order was not solely brought on by that.
Talking after the race, having completed in fifteenth and greater than 20 seconds adrift of Valtteri Bottas forward of him, Ocon was downbeat about issues.
Requested if the primary lap injury had successfully derailed hopes of a great displaying, Ocon mentioned: “I do not suppose it has modified the general image of the race, sadly.
“It did not assist, that is for certain, however we did not lose that a lot efficiency on each vehicles. I believe we had been simply not fast sufficient.
“I believe we did this weekend a great step ahead in qualifying, however within the race, that is in all probability step one backwards that we’re doing since Bahrain. And there are some similarities between right here and Bahrain, so we have to have a look at that.”
Ocon mentioned that whereas Alpine had gone aggressive with its technique to strive one thing completely different, there was finally little it may do towards rivals.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524 Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“Technique-wise, we tried to be daring, and we tried to undercut quite a lot of vehicles, which we did,” he mentioned. “We handed 4 vehicles at one level however yeah, I couldn’t do something to carry them behind. And that was it right this moment, sadly.
“I felt like I could not struggle. The opposite ones had been in one other class.”
The disappointing race type got here after the workforce appeared to have made some progress with its single-lap tempo, as Ocon had made it by way of to Q2 once more.
However he means that its type had maybe been flattered by modifications the workforce made, which have had penalties for long-run type.
“There are some issues that we modified which may imply that we battle extra within the race,” he mentioned. “However for certain, it wasn’t good.”