"Esteban Ocon's race was a one-off": Alpine boss backs 1x F1 winner to 'bounce back' in Saudi Arabian GP

Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer has backed Esteban Ocon's performance in Bahrain, claiming the race was just a 'one-off'. Ocon dropped out of the race after incurring a number of penalties.

At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Ocon received a five-second penalty for lining up outside his grid slot. After failing to serve the first penalty correctly by leaving his pit box 0.4s early, he received an additional 10-second penalty.

During his penalty, Ocon exceeded the speed limit in the pit lane, resulting in another five-second penalty, making his total penalty time 20 seconds. As a result, his team withdrew him from the race, causing him to retire early.

Szafnauer claims Ocon's poor showing was the result of a string of errors that will be rectified by the time the sport heads to Jeddah this weekend. The Alpine boss told Formula1 about Esteban Ocon:

"We made too many mistakes across the weekend, and we can all do a better job to improve on those. I believe Esteban’s [Ocon's] race was a one-off, a culmination of a string of errors, some on his side, some operationally, and his side of the garage will undoubtedly bounce back in Saudi Arabia."

Esteban Ocon has never had a linear path, claims Alpine CEO

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi stated that the Frenchman has never had an easy time in the sport, having spent an inadequate amount of time with F1 teams. As a result, Rossi claims, Esteban Ocon has never been able to show his true potential in the sport.

Rossi justified the one-time GP winner's multi-year contract, claiming that giving him a long time to blossom might play into Alpine's hands in the long run. Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Laurent Rossi said:

"There’s no mystery about the fact that I’ve very quickly tried to make Esteban feel comfortable in the team. Because Esteban, what was remarkable about this boy is that he has never had an easy linear path. Every single year almost he was told ‘That’s it, that’s over, that’s the end of the road with us and you need to find another gig next year’. Which is super difficult, especially in a career like that. You need a bit of a runway, right?"

Ocon currently stars alongside former AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, who scored points on his debut for the French team. It remains to be seen whether the French team will fare better in Jeddah this weekend.