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Esteban Ocon is satisfied with his 2022 season, where he emulated Lewis Hamilton's feat of beating Fernando Alonso as a teammate.
Hamilton had done the same in 2007 when he made his F1 debut and had the Spaniard as his teammate. Talking to RacingNews365.com after the Abu Dhabi GP, where he cemented P8 in the standings, Ocon said that he was satisfied with beating Alonso in an Alpine.
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When pointed out that Alonso had faced reliability issues during the season, Ocon said that even he encountered the same. He said:
"I've had my issues too, but it for sure feels good. He's a very, very fast driver, and I obviously had to up my game as much as I could. To finish in front of him is good satisfaction. Obviously the only thing that I missed this year in the end is a podium, but that was for different circumstances that we didn't get one. Hopefully, we can get some of those next year."
Talking about the race in Abu Dhabi, Ocon said that he was close to overtaking Lando Norris, adding:
"I'm very pleased with the result that we got. Obviously, one more lap, and I'd probably have got Lando – it was a very close race all the way, but that doesn't matter. All the targets that we set ourselves are accomplished; we finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship. Thank God for that, it's also my best season in Formula 1 in terms of points."
Ocon ended the 2022 season with 92 points, 11 clear of his illustrious teammate.
Fernando Alonso talks about 'unacceptable' reliability issues
Fernando Alonso bemoaned the reliability issues that plagued the team during the season, saying:
"There are facts that this year they've been against us a little bit in car 14, six DNFs. But also (the ones) where they don't count as a DNF, but they were DNF like in Australia qualifying (there was) a problem, a Sprint race in Austria where we didn't even start the race, and things like that."
He continued:
"So, I think there are nine or ten reliability issues, which at this level is obviously not acceptable. I think we've been more competitive this year. When we finished the race, it was more enjoyable than McLaren-Honda when we were always out of the points, so I will not compare."
Fernando Alonso will drive for Aston Martin next season, where he will hope to fare better than he did this year.
