The admission wꦿas shared by David Croft, the Sky Sports F1 broadcaster, who revealed what Ocon told him in a private conversation.

Alpine finished sixth in th🔜e 2023 F1 constructors’ championship but seemingly Ocon fears they might not progress beyond midfield this year.

“I don’t know how it’s all going behind the scenes,” Crofty 🦄said at the Autosport International Sho▨w, the report.

“A wheel has not even turned yet🅺 at this point. 

“E🎉steban Ocon said he 🎶believes the Alpine is a little bit slow. 

“He told me th✅at before Christmas. But I don’🦂t know who’s in really good shape…”

Ocon and teammatꦜe Pierre Gasly both featured on the podium last year but Alpine did not make the huge strides forwards that they may have wished for.

The development of Aston Martin and McLaren at various stages of last season was a stark reminder to Alpine of wha𓆏t could ha🌟ve been.

There were also huge behind-the-scenes changes as CEO 🙈Laurent Rossi, t🥂eam principal Ottmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane all departed.

But despite big financial investmen💦t from a consortium which includes Ryan Rey🍨nolds, Anthony Joshua and Rory McIlroy, Ocon’s early fears do not bode well.

Crofty went on to🐷 consider how the winter development could change the pecking order this year.

“My real hope for this year is that we actuall🐟y get a Mercedes car that is a bit more on par with the Red Bull,” he said.

”I 🍃do think that going into this year, R✃ed Bull are obviously going to be in decent shape. They have just finished what was a superb last year.

“You’ve g♏ot Ferrari who say their car is going to be 95% different to last year’s. 

“So heaven only🐻 knows what we’re going to get from Ferrari on that one

“Aston Martin needs to put right what went wrong in the middle part of last year and ge෴t b꧅ack to where they were at the start. 

“Then you’ve got McL🍃aren. McLaren are🌄 fantastic! Their revival last year was like Lazarus."