Alpine F-1 Team didn’t secure the top spot on the podium in Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. However, the team’s celebration after placing second and third was equal, if not more, than the winning team of Max Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing.Â
Alpine’s monumental day began during a wet qualifying session on Sunday morning. Esteban Ocon wheeled his machine to a stellar fourth-place effort while Pierre Gasly struggled to start 13th.Â
In a wet and tumultuous race, strategy became the team’s ally. During a red flag period on lap 33, both team’s were able to swap tires out and leapfrog the majority of the field.Â
While Ocon lost the lead to eventual winner Verstappen, the team was able to hang on for a much-needed double points day. It was Ocon’s best career finish since his first victory in the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.Â
“I don’t know if we’re in the reality right now (or) if we’re still in a dream,” Ocon beamed. “The alarm rang this morning at 4:30 and we had no idea that today was going to be such a day. The qualifying was incredible today. We are leading the race, like, we haven’t been further up than P10 this year or P9.
“It’s been incredible being able to fight. It feels so good. Spending so much time in the midfield, struggling, you kind of think, ‘When is my time gonna come?’ Today really, showed that if we all have the same car, we would be able to fight at the front.”
The stellar day allowed for Alpine to jump from ninth in the constructors’ championship to sixth as they overtook RB Honda RBPT and Haas F-1.Â
“We scored an unusual amount of points today,” Ocon laughed. “I think in 20 races we scored like 15 points. Today, we scored more than 30. We need to keep pushing until the end of the season.”