Alpine make "extensive changes" to address Esteban Ocon woes

Alpine

Alpine make "extensive changes" to address Ocon woes

Ocon has failed to score in his last four races

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 13 July 2021 16:07

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Alpine has revealed to undergoing a detailed investigation behind Esteban Ocon's stark performance drop-off that has resulted in a complete chassis change ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Following a solid start to the season in which Ocon scored points in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Monaco, the 24-year-old French driver has since endured a wretched run as he failed to score in the last four races.

After retiring with a turbocharger issue in Azerbaijan, Ocon then lacked pace in the following races in France and Styria before retiring again on his last outing in Austria following a collision with Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi.

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In both races in Austria, however, Ocon's dramatic fall was highlighted by the fact he failed to even make it out of Q1, starting 17th on each occasion.

Addressing the matter, executive director Marcin Budkowski said: "Esteban had two difficult races in Austria and we’re still investigating whether there are any technical reasons behind it.

"To eradicate any doubt, the team has made the decision to make extensive changes to his car for Silverstone, including a new chassis.

"Esteban performed very strongly at the start of the season and qualified the car on the third row of the grid on merit at two races in a row just a few weekends ago, so we are working together to make sure he bounces back, and this weekend is the perfect opportunity to do that."

Ocon hoping "reset" can reverse fortunes

Ocon is naturally hoping the deep dive into his problems will yield answers at this weekend's race.

With a degree of understatement, he said: "The France-Austria triple-header was not as successful as we had hoped."

He added: "It’s good that we’re heading to a completely different circuit, taking on a new challenge and having a reset.

"The team and I have been working very hard behind the scenes to see what we can do to improve our performance.

"I know we’ll come back to the level we had at the start of the season and the hard work will only continue until we achieve that and even go beyond."