Ocon battled lung virus which left him “very sick” in F1 winter break

Although the Alpine driver has since fully recovered, he said the illness affected his winter training and preparation for the upcoming 2023 campaign. 

Ocon believes he has regained his fitness levels but admitted he was “quite worried” about his health at one stage. 

“For a month and a half, I was not really able to go back on the fitness level that I was supposed to have,” Ocon explained at the launch of Alpine’s A523 F1 car. 

“But we’ve done a great job together with my team, with my coaches, and to go back to fitness level that I had in the previous year.

“I feel great now. But in such a short period of time, those viruses are strong. Everyone needs to take care, obviously.”

Ocon added: “I was able to do some things, but like my cardio went to the highest level at walking pace for example. It was that bad. 

“So we were quite worried, but we did everything in a way for me to recover as quick as possible and to switch that into full training mode when I was feeling better, and then I climbed massively up.

“But for a long time it did plateau, and that was when we started to worry.”

Ocon is joined by Pierre Gasly this season at Alpine, who field an all-French line-up following Fernando Alonso’s exit to Aston Martin. 

The Frenchmen have vowed to work together to help Alpine achieve their goals despite an uneasy relationship in recent years due to a falling out.