Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi claims Esteban Ocon may not be “guaranteed Formula 1 champion material” but is an “excellent second driver”.
The Frenchman enjoyed a strong start to 2021, with his impressive pace against Fernando Alonso earning him a new three-year contract at the Enstone-based team.
However, ninth place at Silverstone was Ocon’s first points finish since Monaco, while in comparison, Alonso scored at every race since Baku and now has almost double the points of his teammate.
Perhaps for that reason then, the Alpine chief, while still happy with Ocon, isn’t sure if he’s the man to lead the team to their ultimate goal.
“He might not be guaranteed world champion material,” Rossi told the BBC at the British Grand Prix. “Who can be dubbed this way? Not many drivers at the moment.
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“I would not let anyone say he is a lesser driver than Carlos [Sainz] or any of the so-called second drivers of the top teams.
“So, at the very least I have myself an excellent second driver, and I frankly think he has all it takes to become a top driver.”
Comparing Ocon with Sainz is an interesting one given both did show potential in lesser cars before, in the case of Sainz, going on to impress both at McLaren and now Ferrari.
And when Alpine committed with the 24-year-old until 2024, Rossi highlighted what he saw in Ocon.
“First off he’s a great fine-tuner, it reminds me a lot of Alain [Prost], actually,” he explained. “He is very good at extracting the maximum out of the car and it shows, he’s constantly improving.
“He is damn fast too, give him any car he’s fast, he shows it every qualifying. So that makes him a very good driver first off.
“He’s a good teammate, not just to the other driver, it’s also to the rest of the team. He is basically pushing everyone up, and it shows. So, he’s a great guy to have in the team.
“And then beyond the F1 driver, he’s a great guy. He’s humble, very generous with his time, constantly giving his time even to us in the larger Alpine construct. He always offers to chime in to the development of the new cars or the brand awareness type of work.
“So, it’s really good to have him around. That’s also why we signed him for three years.”
Alpine was also keen to tie down Ocon to a new contract after seeing Daniel Ricciardo walk out the door last year.
“I don’t want to be here again, looking for another driver after two years,” Rossi said. “The recent past showed that it never really turns the right way – [if] you have a good driver, you want to keep them.
“So I think it’s good for us, it’s good for him. We have a long, long way to make progress, he buys into the project, and adds credibility to our project.
“For me, it’s also a guarantee that we’re going to perform on the driver department. Esteban is arguably a top-10 driver minimum. So, we don’t make a big mistake here.
“For me, it was a no brainer. It’s part of a long journey and Esteban fits into that mould quite well.”