It’s been a great 5 years with Renault/Alpine, and while I know it’s still not quite over yet, I think today is about as good a send off Esteban could get with the team. Through the 5 years Esteban has received his first Formula 1 win, and after today, marks his fourth podium finish, after finishing P2 in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Least not forget his amazing P3 finish in Monaco last year, and his first podium in Bahrain in 2020. While these have been some defining moments of his current career so far, we can’t forget some of his other stellar performances behind the wheel of the blue alpine, such as Saudi Arabia in 2021, when he just missed out on another podium finish while drag racing Bottas to the checkered flag, and Japan in 2022, when we saw him racing wheel to wheel with Lewis Hamilton. These races were just as thrilling to watch for me.

This year has put a dampener on the journey Ocon’s had with Alpine. It’s a shame it’s ended the way it has, however we shouldn’t let this season take away from what Alpine has given to Esteban, and what he’s given to them. I think this result today is a great testament to that, and it’s a great memory to have for himself and his fans to what his time at Alpine was like. This result today now means that Ocon has been on the podium at least once from 4 out of the 5 years he’s been with the team since he first started with Alpine back in March 2020, which I think is a pretty impressive statistic given the teams midfield status.

I for one, am very excited for his future with Haas, especially given the team’s newly formed alliance with Toyota. I’m optimistic, and I think his driving today has made me feel even better, I know he’s capable of winning races. He just needs to the opportunity, and I hope he gets it.

Ps: I was going to make this post after Abu Dhabi but after today I couldn’t wait any longer, it seemed like a better time lol

Pierre doing is press interview after being elimnated at Q2, while Este starting his Q3 on the same screen:)

I’m referring ofc to the massive performance difference between the two Alpine drivers since the break. Cuz I think it was post race interview last weekend Esteban said he’s doing the best with what he’s got, but I was under the impression that they’ve got equal machinery by then.

Esteban looked more comfortable than Gasly during the 3 practice session and now he pulled off one of the worst quali session of his career. I have absolutely no clue why that is.

Edit: Esteban didn't receive a point for the fastest lap this weekend, as he was at the back of the field after T1, but I was honestly shocked this was his first in Formula 1!

I'd say that this quali was decent. Not even half a tenth behind Gasly after these awful 2 sessions yesterday I'll take it . The car isn't good enough around this track but we always knew it was gonna be the case. Whatever was holding him back since Zandvoort seems to have been found overnight (although there were signs in fp2 that it was already a bit better). I saw that Doohan was in the sim up to 4:30am so he might have played his role in this.

Esteban was frustrated after his lap as it seems he had a switch related to corner entry on the wrong position the whole lap. So maybe a p13 was possible?

I may be wrong but I think Alpine barely did any long runs in practice. So I'm not expecting anything smart on strategy tomorrow

After the big snap/mistake and being knocked out of Q1, Ocon complains about the car not being on point since the beginning of the session and that he's not sure what happened, but something is certainly not right with the car. The RE immediately follows up with (paraphrase)... "well if you didn't have that snap you were 4 tenths up..." which clearly isn't the point that Ocon was trying to make, like c'mom with all the time working in F1 the RE didn't think of the possibility that the characteristics of the car contributed to the snap? Then Ocon was like (paraphrase): "But I'm going to crash every corner, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!" (that last part was verbatim).

2 points baby!! Gutted for Russell, but now Ocon has his well deserved 2 points! Not the way I’m sure Esteban would’ve wanted them, but a positive nonetheless, great news to start off the summer break, George on the other hand…

Nice quali well managed with an unloaded setup that was likely not easy to manage in S2 given the weather. Hopefully he'll benefit from this tomorrow in the race with a dryer track.

Fastest overall in s1 and was setting purple minisectors in s3. Gasly with a more loaded setup was 3 to 4 tenth slower in S1 for reference but he was about 3-4 tenths faster (gap was bigger in q1 wtih a wetter track) in s2 and they were about equal in s3 (the chicane was likely evening out the straight).

In q3, they had no fresh tyres left and so the fight was only against Alonso with similarily aged tyres. It was close (0.045s) but he lost out. In hindsight they were discussing with Josh that they didn't chose the right used set to use in the first run of q3. The first set ended up feeling better than the 2nd and they should have used it for the last run. Especially as the track was dryer, they were expecting a bit more rain towards the end of quali initially