Esteban Ocon has insisted is “ready to race” in Belgium this weekend despite “recovering” from the seat-break crash that brought a premature end to his Hungarian Grand Prix.
For the second consecutive race, Alpine suffered a double DNF, with Ocon and team-mate Piere Gasly out of the race in Hungary on Sunday following a first-corner collision in which they were the innocent victims.
Ocon ran over the top of Gasly’s A523 but only as the end result of a chain reaction of events that saw a late-braking Zhou Guanyu in his Alfa Romeo run into the back of AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who in turn hit Ocon, sending him into Gasly.
The resultant impact as Ocon’s car landed on the ground saw his seat break in two.
As to how he is feeling physically going into this weekend’s Belgian GP, Ocon said: “Recovering, thank you.
“It’s obviously been quite a short period between the incident and going back on track quite soon but I will be okay to race this weekend, which is the most important. I’m ready to race.”
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What unfolded in Hungary followed hot on the heels of the double retirement at the previous race in Britain where a hydraulics leak forced Ocon into retirement after 12 laps, before a safety car played havoc with Gasly’s race, leading to a collision with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll that led to him retiring with six laps remaining.
With a heavy degree of understatement, Ocon said: “We are not where we want to be exactly.”
Recognising the need to end the disastrous run, he then added: “We know what we have to do. We know where we have to progress and we are obviously bringing some new parts to the car this weekend.
“Hopefully, that’s going to bring us closer to the top 10, to be able to score, but yes, it’s going to be important for us to have a good one before the summer break so we can all go on holidays with a clear mind.”
For the race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the Alpines will sport a new floor, in particular, although Ocon is wary of placing too much store into potential improvements from the development.
“Feet on the ground at the moment, seeing what it’s going to bring,” said Ocon, especially given the event this weekend includes the sprint format, whilst bad weather is also set to have an effect.
“Obviously it’s going to be important…understanding it as well. It’s going to be tricky with this format this weekend, especially how very few tyres we have on the wets, or in general for the weekend.
“So yeah, we just want to see if it brings us closer to the points so we are going to be able to score again. That’s what we want to be achieving.”
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