Team Talk - Sunday in Monza

Alpine F1

Esteban Ocon (FRA) Alpine F1 Team A521. 12.09.2021. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 14, Italian Grand Prix, Monza
Fernando Alonso
“I think we maximised our potential today considering it was an uncompetitive weekend for us after qualifying thirteenth and fourteenth on Friday. It was quite a lonely race for me, but both cars finished in the points so it’s a good result for the team. I think the result shows we executed a good race, strategy and pit-stops. Now Monza is out of the way, hopefully we can find our competitiveness again for the next race and fight for more points in the championship.”

Esteban Ocon
“It was a busy race for us today and, while scoring a point is always good, I feel we were very unfortunate not to score more. I had a good start, made a couple of places, and then I had to give a position back to Nicholas [Latifi], which cost us time. Then, I was having a good battle with Sebastian [Vettel], we touched a bit at Turn 4 without having any damage and received a five-second penalty for the manoeuvre. With the timing of the Safety Car, we had to serve it at the pit-stop and that really cost us as it looked like we could have gained a big advantage from that. I disagree with the decisions on both incidents, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The one point doesn’t reflect the team’s work this weekend as there was potential for more.”

Marcin Budkowski, executive director
“It was an eventful race today and it’s good we were able to get through it unscathed with both cars again in the points. Given our starting position, it’s not a bad day’s work, especially as our closest rivals in the championship did not score. We have consolidated our fifth place in the Championship on a circuit that isn’t very favourable for our car. Congratulations to Daniel for his win - he is the second Australian driver to win today as Alpine Academy driver Oscar Piastri won the Formula 2 Feature Race this morning! After three races in a row, the race team is now going to take a well-deserved break before continuing the season in Sochi, a circuit which should allow us to be more competitive and fight for bigger points.”