Alpine star Esteban Ocon emphasizes the need to ensure a ‘smooth weekend’ and bring home points in F1 Monaco GP

As F1 returns to the streets of Monaco for its crown jewel race, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon is keen on bringing home solid points. The French driver emphasized the need for a "smooth weekend" after an underwhelming start to the team's 2023 campaign.

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi recently lambasted the team for the poor start to the season, calling out the team members for appearing amateurish at times. The French team's on-track mishaps have cost them hugely as they are currently sixth in the constructors' standings, behind McLaren.

Heading into the Monaco GP, Esteban Ocon outlined the goals for the team, saying:

"While our thoughts remain with Emilia-Romagna, our racing focus turns to Monaco. Like Miami, we need to ensure that we have a smooth weekend and bring home deserved points. We’ve had a couple of disappointing race weekends this year so the team is focused on executing better races across the board."

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon in the F1 Grand Prix of Miami

After a wretched start to the season, the Frenchman's fortunes changed in Miami, as he took home a deserved ninth-place finish. Buoyed by the recent performance, Ocon expects to challenge the top teams at the Monaco GP.

Entering the seventh round of the season in Monaco, he said:

"We are eager to get back out there and show our pace and show that we can compete with some of the top teams. Monaco is always an exciting weekend, one of the highlights of the season, and we will be looking to put on a good show for the fans."

The 26-year-old currently stands 12th in the drivers' standings, two places behind his teammate Pierre Gasly.

---

How did Esteban Ocon and the team's mishaps influence Alpine CEO's comments?

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi recently blasted the team for their "amateurishness." Mishaps from the team and mistakes from their drivers have inspired Rossi's rant as the team has been unable to execute a clean weekend.

At the season opener in Bahrain, Esteban Ocon's race was marred with a hattrick of penalties. He crashed out of the Australian GP, as he was wrecked by his teammate Pierre Gasly. Ocon's luck remained the same in Baku as the team failed to find the right setup in the sprint weekend.

Speaking to Canal+ over the Miami weekend, Rossi said:

"This year ended up starting with a flawed performance and flawed delivery. It’s obvious our position in the standings is not worthy of the resources we spend, and we are quite far – in fact very far – from this year’s end goal."

He added:

"I did not like the first grand prix, because there was a lot of – I’m sorry for saying this – amateurishness, which led to a result that wasn’t right. It was mediocre, bad. And the last race in Baku was tremendously similar to the one in Bahrain. That is not acceptable."

He further threatened consequences for the team's senior management if it fails to change its trajectory quickly.