F1 News, Reports and Race Results

'Rusty' Ocon needs to make his life easier on Saturday

F1 returnee Esteban Ocon shed the remaining rust off his Renault armor with a P8 points finish in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, but the Frenchman targets starting his future races further up the grid.

Ocon launched his race from a lowly P14 but steadily moved up through the field to enter the top ten where the Frenchman spared with AlphaTauri's Dany Kvyat.

The pair made contact in the closing stages of the 71-lap event but Ocon kept the upper hand to finish P8 and hot on the heels of Kvyat's teammate Pierre Gasly.

"It felt good to be back racing properly today. Finishing in the points is a great result, especially as I’m still a little rusty!" said Ocon.

"I'm pretty happy with how the race went. To be honest, starting from 14th I think it's a pretty good effort. The car was very nice in the race, the pace was very solid, I was catching a lot of the cars around me and had fights until the end.

"Definitely we need to make our life a bit easier on Saturday, starting a bit further up and then we should be in the mix to fight with the other cars."

Asked whether improvements will come as soon as this week's second round at the Red Bull Ring, Ocon said: "My target is to rectify that, definitely. If it's too soon time will tell.

"But I'm looking forward to improving everything that we need to do better."

Ocon's assessment of the Renault R.S.20's race pace was a bit at odds with Daniel Ricciardo's rating of the car's speed when with a high fuel load.

The Aussie's Sunday came to a premature end when an overheating issue thwarted his race after just 17 laps.

"I heard it was a cooling issue," said Ricciardo. "So we had to retire before we did more damage.

"It’s a shame obviously, first race back, it’s a memory of what the sport can be like.

"I think the positive from this weekend is that in qualifying, low-fuel the car is strong, but I think on high-fuel we need to learn a little bit more.That’s an area where we can improve.

"The low-fuel is really good though, so we’ll try to learn, even though I only did 16, 20 laps there is a lot to take from that."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.

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