Middle East heat will play into Renault's hands - Ocon
Middle East heat will play into Renault's hands - Ocon
Esteban Ocon has no doubt Formula 1's season-ending triple-header in the Middle East will play into Renault's hands in the four-way fight for third in the constructors' championship.
A strong run had propelled Renault into a narrow one-point lead over Racing Point and McLaren heading into the last race in Turkey, only for the team to suffer its second-worst performance of the season in collecting a point from Daniel Ricciardo's 10th place.
That has left Renault now 18 points adrift of third-placed Racing Point, while a resurgent Ferrari has closed to within six points of the French manufacturer going into the final three races, with two in Bahrain - including the Sakhir venue's Outer Circuit - before the traditional curtain-closer in Abu Dhabi.
Ocon, however, feels the conditions in the two countries will favour Renault. He said: “We are usually pretty good on tracks where the heat is strong.
"Usually, we look after the tyres well. On all those tough tracks we are usually pretty strong so I look forward to it. The car has been performing well on those tracks and in those conditions so I have no doubt we will be there.”
Given the freak set of circumstances that prevailed across the weekend at Istanbul Park, asked whether there was potential across a normal weekend to close the gap, the French driver replied: "Yes, very much.
"I think we still have all opportunities ahead of us. There are still three races to go, a lot of points available on the table.
“Where we are, it can turn very quickly from one way to another, so I have no doubt that we will again be in the fight in Bahrain and in Abu Dhabi as well.”
Before you go...
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F1 Race Calendar
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GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
- GP AUSTRALIA 22 - 24 Mar
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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