Alonso and Ocon want to continue harvesting points in Turkey

Apart from the opening race in Bahrain, Alpine has always scored this season. A consistency, if not a truly impressive pure performance, that the French team wants to maintain at the beginning of this new race weekend.

Esteban Ocon opens up about the Istanbul Park track: “I love this circuit, it’s really cool. The track has been resurfaced and finding grip last year was a real challenge. When it started raining during qualifying, it was probably the worst conditions I have ever driven in.”

The French driver also looks back on his missed opportunity in Turkey in 2020: When it was announced that we were going back to Turkey, I was really happy. Last season’s Grand Prix left me with a sense of unfinished business. Ocon had indeed been hit twice by Valtteri Bottas in the first lap.

Fernando Alonso, who is returning to Turkey for the first time since 2011, was also able to reminiscence about his memories of Istanbul Park.

« I had a very fun battle with Michael Schumacher (seven-time F1 world champion) here in 2006. He was glued to my gearbox in the final corner of the last lap. It was one of the many battles we had that year.

The double world champion from Spain, who narrowly missed the podium in Russia, is now focusing on the upcoming edition and highlights the team’s strength this season: consistency. « We have had some good races this year but the most important thing is that we have been consistent. We need to maintain this consistency and score more points for the team to finish this season at the top ».