Alpine driver Esteban Ocon was forced to retire from the Singapore Grand Prix on lap 43 after suffering a gearbox problem. Ocon, whose birthday was also on Sunday, said the day was a disappointing one for him.
Ocon said after the race: "I can say that the end of my birthday was disappointing." “Everything was going very well, we made the right choices, the right moves at the start and throughout the race. "These things happen, the reliability issue is one of the things in motorsport."
The French pilot hopes to come back strongly with the performance they had this weekend. “We touch on issues such as how well the car performed in the race, how fast we were and who we were competing with. “This is very encouraging and a good source of motivation for everyone before heading to one of my favorite tracks.”
When asked about his thoughts on the next race, the Japanese Grand Prix, Ocon replied: “I can't wait. “If not the most important race of the year, it is one of the most important.”
“It's a very nice track, I hope it doesn't rain too much and I hope everything goes well. I was talking to Seb [Vettel], I asked him how much he misses driving F1 cars and he mentioned to me that he misses Suzuka a lot, especially. He misses this and I agree. "This is the moment I've been waiting for all year."
“We hope to have a good race with the progress we made this weekend.”
