Alpine's consistency making difference in P5 battle against AlphaTauri - Ocon

Alpine sits 10 points clear of AlphaTauri with just five rounds remaining. 

On balance, AlphaTauri has tended to have the quicker car especially in qualifying with Pierre Gasly being a regular Q3 contender, while Alpine has fared better on race day.

Assessing the battle with Red Bull’s sister team, Ocon believes AlphaTauri is “clearly” ahead in terms of performance.

“We know that we are not as fast as them, clearly,” Ocon said. “It’s been the case that we’ve been scoring with both cars and that made the difference. We were scoring two, three, one point each time having two cars when we were capable of going into the top 10. 

“That’s what made the difference and obviously our strong weekend in Budapest has made us also be in that position. All we can do is focus on ourselves and try and do the best job that we can. On paper, we can’t beat them but we are pushing to get both cars into the points each time and try to be consistent there.

“Of course we didn’t score this weekend, but we scored 15 times in a row as a team, so that’s stronger than them on paper. And that’s how we should keep going.”

Looking ahead to Mexico this weekend, Ocon remains confident that Alpine can return to form after coming away from Austin with no points.

“We are not going to start thinking like that going to Mexico, Ocon added. “The aim is to be in the points. We will start working very hard to prepare. Obviously, the Mexican circuit is very different characteristics, very different tarmac, a lot more smooth. 

“There is no reason why we can’t get back into a good rhythm and good performance and I’m sure we are going to be back in form pretty soon.”