Esteban Ocon says that his Alpine Formula 1 team needs to understand how changes through the Monza weekend saw the A524 “come alive” by race day.
Ocon had a frustrating Dutch GP with an oversteering car, and he was also struggling on Friday in Italy.
After overnight changes he was happier with the car on Saturday, although he only qualified 15th, a place behind team mate Pierre Gasly.
The pair followed different strategies in the race, with Ocon starting on the hard tyre and putting in a marathon first stint on the way to 14th, while Gasly started on the mediums, survived a clash with Kevin Magnussen, and was classified 16th after pitting twice.
While the final result was unspectacular Ocon was at least encouraged by the fact that the car felt better.
“This weekend we tried everything,” he said. “We tried to qualify on the used tyre, we tried then on the new, and then today I tried a reverse strategy. Pierre on the other hand, tried to start on the medium. We did two different things.
“We just need to regroup and see exactly what was best. Maybe it was the medium/hard that was that was better to do. But I need to sit with engineers and have a look, because that’s the only thing we didn’t try.
“Pierre went there, but didn’t manage to stay on the one-stop strategy. And, yeah, there’s been some positives this weekend.
“I think from Friday to Saturday I’ve struggled a lot less with the issues that in Zandvoort, and also Friday, I was struggling. I was very much off the pace in comparison to where we should be. And on Saturday, suddenly things came alive.
“So we need to point out exactly what that was, because for me, it was a very different race weekend with that going away.
“Well done to the guys for that, but we need to know exactly what it is for it not to come back again. And we are obviously working on that.”
Asked if swapping parts had made the difference he said: “There’s been things changing from Friday to Saturday. It’s pretty sure that we are going to be looking at this very closely.
“And yeah, I’m sure there’s going to be some more analysis and background from the team before we head to Baku. And we go again at Baku, and we have another chance of scoring again.
“Today we didn’t have these issues, and we are very happy that they were not there. But until we point out what they are, it could come back, and that’s what we need to be careful of. But we are aware as a team, and we keep going.”
Gasly meanwhile was left frustrated after his strong Zandvoort form disappeared in Italy.
“The whole afternoon our issues were we were dead slow.” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about his race.
“Our issues were we were dead slow. We’ve got to really get on top of it, because I really believed we would have more potential in the race, and it was a lot harder.
“After quali we found out we had some issue with the brakes, which carried on into the race. Massive bouncing in the race, a lot of degradation, and the car just felt wrong. I want to check with the guys if everything is okay, because it just felt very poor.”
