Esteban Ocon casts verdict on Fernando Alonso’s resurgence with Aston Martin

Esteban Ocon has praised his former teammate’s form at Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso scoring multiple podiums.

Ocon and Alonso spent two seasons racing together as teammates at Alpine after Alonso’s return to the sport in 2021.

While the duo’s relationship started off amicably as the pair worked together well, even leading to Ocon’s maiden win at the Hungaroring as Alonso defended hard against a recovering Lewis Hamilton at the Hungaroring in 2021, the partnership began to fall apart during the second year.

While most of Alonso’s frustrations were focused on the lack of reliability at Alpine, as well as the treatment he received about the renewal of his contract, he and Ocon weren’t seeing eye-to-eye by the time Alonso left to join Aston Martin at the end of the season.

Esteban Ocon has “enormous respect” for Fernando Alonso

Despite this, Ocon has said he’s thrilled to see how well Alonso is doing at his new team, having scored five podium finishes from the first seven races of the year to become Red Bull’s closest challenger for the Drivers’ Championship.

“The press likes to talk a lot, but everything is going well,” Ocon told Spanish publication AS at the Spanish Grand Prix.

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“I have enormous respect for him and always will. Now we compete close. Not as close as we would like, but we did [get to]compete on the track.

“Fernando is having a fantastic season, respect. I have no doubt that he continues to be at his best level. I have competed with him in recent years and he shows everyone that he is one of the best ever. I take my hat off. He’s doing incredibly well, he makes me happy, and I hope to get to that level soon.”

No change in ethos at Alpine after Fernando Alonso’s departure

With Ocon getting a new teammate as Pierre Gasly was signed to replace the outgoing Alonso, Ocon explained that very little has changed for him at Alpine as a result of the two time World Champion’s departure.

“I do the same job as when Fernando was here,” he said.

“I go to the factory every week, I’m involved in the project, I work with the same people and there are no differences.”

Ocon himself has returned to the podium for the first time since his historic win in Hungary, taking a third-place at Monaco to finish behind Alonso and race winner Max Verstappen.

“I had a lot of confidence in the car from the first practice sessions, I was able to get close to the walls little by little each session and build that lap,” he said.

“We didn’t expect to be there [in third], but then we were able to keep that starting position. A lot happened in the race, it’s never easy when you’re ahead. The blow from Carlos [Sainz], the pressure from Lewis [Hamilton], the rain… it was extremely difficult, but everyone in the team deserves that result.”