Ocon switches to “war mode” after “wasted opportunity” in F1 2023

The Frenchman also insists that he will switch to “war mode” next year with an even greater focus on his racing and fewer distractions out of the cockpit.

Highlights of Ocon’s year were starting and finishing third in Monaco, and earning fourth place in Las Vegas from 16^th on the grid.

However, he also suffered a series of non-finishes during the season, several of them after contact with other cars, on his way to finishing 12^th in the world championship.

“I think there’s been some very good things, some very good opportunities that we took,” he said when asked about his season. “But the consistency overall hasn’t been there.

“And we had too many DNFs. That has cost us, I think it’s nine DNFs in total, probably the most of any drivers.

“If you remove the issue we had with the gearbox in Singapore, and the contact with Oscar [Piastri] in Austin, we could have been in the top 10 in the championship. So that’s why it’s a little bit of a wasted opportunity.”

Ocon insists that next season he will focus on his racing more than he was able to do this year.

“From January 2 until the first test I will be back fully into training camp,” he said. “I’m going to be more doing the way I was doing it in 2022, which is no life, flat out, only racing. We’ve been doing a lot of different things and activations outside the track this year.

“That’s going to change next year. It’s back to war mode and fully focused on the racing side. Before that there’s going be the Christmas party of the team, there’s going be some simulator work.

“I’m going be able to have a couple of days seeing my family that I haven’t seen for a while. We’re going to have some good times with friends, with Mick [Schumacher], with all my friends in December as well, and then it’s fully focused on next year.”