{"id":17791,"date":"2024-01-01T07:09:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=17791"},"modified":"2024-01-01T07:09:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:09:38","slug":"esteban-ocon-looking-forward-to-fighting-for-f1-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/01\/01\/esteban-ocon-looking-forward-to-fighting-for-f1-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Esteban Ocon &#8220;looking forward&#8221; to fighting for F1 titles"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Esteban Ocon believes he can fight for F1 world titles, confident that his &#8220;time will come&#8221; to win races.<\/h3>\n<p>Esteban Ocon&#8217;s career is at a crucial juncture, with a series of important decisions to make in 2024. The Frenchman&#8217;s contract with Alpine expires this year, so he must evaluate the options available.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the 27-year-old has enjoyed reasonable success with the French team. Having collected a race win and four F1 podiums, Ocon certainly isn&#8217;t short of silverware or stand-out performances.<\/p>\n<p>However, the objective of any F1 driver with ambition is to compete at the front consistently. For several years now, making this critical step has eluded Alpine.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Renault&#8217;s financial firepower and potential, their results have consistently disappointed. Last season was another underwhelming campaign for Team Enstone, who dropped to 6th in the standings.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"26HW5QQXTcl4YGOXmcLxsw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1810870984\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'26HW5QQXTcl4YGOXmcLxsw',sig:'_5su3ZQt7GHDjerbZrPMSBALWSmoSKB1Yxml0s1XYxw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1810870984',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Although Esteban Ocon secured a fantastic podium in Monaco, Alpine failed to compete regularly for these results.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/successes-verstappen-hurt-ocon-my-time-will-come\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">racingnews365,<\/a> Ocon discussed balancing his ambitions with Alpine&#8217;s current position:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;You just have to re-adjust your targets, and my target is to get the best out of the car every race weekend. &#8220;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I believe if I work hard and do well on the track, then my time will come.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;One day, I will have a car that I can compete in for championships and wins.\u00a0<\/em><em>I&#8217;m looking forward to that.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"7jFXzNJ7SFhuuJZ95GClDQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1818840451\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'7jFXzNJ7SFhuuJZ95GClDQ',sig:'M3NLPidZFcuTS8fpiCMrp7MrhRP3nRFf0kw-E_lu_RA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1818840451',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Both <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/01\/01\/alpine-explain-mick-schumacher-2024-signing\/\" target=\"_self\">Alpine drivers<\/a> are on expiring contracts in 2024, although a departure from either would be a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Ocon and Gasly are two very evenly matched drivers, as evidenced on numerous occasions. If last year is any indication, they will continue to push each other to the limit.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst incidents in Australia were examples of inter-team tensions spilling over, these are the least of Alpine&#8217;s concerns. Interim team principal Bruno Famin will be tasked with propelling development for 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Having been out-developed by McLaren and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/12\/31\/fernando-alonso-contract-extension-until-2025-on-the-cards\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Martin<\/a>, the French team has no excuses for remaining stagnant.<\/p>\n<p>The firing of Otmar Szafnauer (who was adamant about keeping the team&#8217;s five-year plan) suggests Alpine demands results now.<\/p>\n<p>Although the A523 wasn&#8217;t without promise, it still lacked efficiency and downforce. F1&#8217;s next regulation change is only two years away, so time is running out for Alpine to close the gap before everything resets.<\/p>\n<p>Winter testing in Bahrain will indicate whether Esteban Ocon&#8217;s ambitions are realistic in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Esteban Ocon believes he can fight for F1 world titles, confident that his &#8220;time will come&#8221; to win races. Esteban Ocon&#8217;s career is at a crucial juncture, with a series of important decisions to make in 2024. The Frenchman&#8217;s contract with Alpine expires this year, so he must evaluate the options available. Overall, the 27-year-old [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":17289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,1567,20,68,23],"class_list":["post-17791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-alpine","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-f1","tag-formula-1"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}