Ocon declares new Alpine A523 'a very good surprise'

Alpine's three days of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit was relatively low key, but the team nonetheless completed 354 laps of the 15 turn, 5.412km circuit, shared equally between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Neither driver was focused on raw pace, meaning they didn't trouble the top of the timesheets on any of the three days. But that wasn't the point of the exercise as far as Ocon was concerned.

"There was much to learn during these last three days and we definitely did a good job to cover many different areas," he said on Saturday evening. "We tried a variety of set-up items and tyre choices.

"Operationally we managed to have a good feel for what works well," he added. "This has given us a strong direction to follow and now we’ll have the next few days to look at the data, and debrief all together."

“The car is much more stable in entry of corners, to attack the entries," he told the media in the paddock in Bahrain. "It gives you a lot more confidence and it’s a much greater balance.

"On tyres which are much more robust at the front, it’s a very good surprise," he added. "In terms of balance I think we are pretty much spot on in terms of entries and on braking as well. The car is very good."

• Read also: Reducing gap to leaders 'a high target' for Alpine, says Ocon

However Ocon admitted that there were still problem areas for the team to work on. "The weakness, we’ll keep to ourselves," he replied when asked by the media what the downsides were.

"We went from a very uncomfortable position [on the first day of testing] to a very comfortable position to a middle position. We’re still working our way through to find what’s the best compromise that we can get."

One thing he was clear about was that the car didn't have any problems with porpoising, despite footage suggesting that the Alpine was 'bouncing' down the straights on some runs.

“I guess the camera picked up one of the runs we were testing an extremely harsh ride, but that’s not the case," he insisted. "We have it under control.

"You can test things that you wouldn’t normally do and wouldn’t do at a race weekend," he explained. "If we want we can make the car have porpoising. If we don’t want, we can make the car very comfortable. It’s not an issue.

Ocon also said there were no problems working with Gasly, who joined the team over the winter after the departure of Fernando Alonso. He said that he and his compatriot might have clashed in the past, but not now they're team mates.

"I think we complete each other quite well at the moment," he stated. “The main direction is the same that we want to push for. On the detail side of things, I think we complete each other.

"There are some things that he spots or I spot and then we say, ‘Oh yeah, you know, that’s something that is actually right', and then you say the same things on my side. So that’s been quite good."

“I think it’s going to be good with Pierre. He’s a super fast driver. He’s won a race, like me, on podiums – in 2021, I think it was where he was super-fast and consistently qualifying around fifth and sixth and that was very impressive.

“I have no doubt he’s going to be ready for the first race," he added, looking ahead to next weekend's 2023 opener in Bahrain.

"It should be a good season together and we are going to push the team forward to compete at the best level we can to achieve some great results.”

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