Spaniard Fernando Alonso has described Esteban Ocon's performances this season as "impressive" with the two-time F1 world champion currently being outperformed by his younger teammate. Ocon who claimed his first-ever podium in F1 at last year's Bahrain Grand Prix has come into the 2021 F1 season in red-hot form. The Mercedes junior has so far outperformed his more illustrious teammate scoring double his points haul. Alonso acknowledges that Ocon has proven himself to be a formidable teammate. "He’s in very good form right now, fully integrated in the team, a podium last year in Bahrain in the last part of the championship and now giving perfect weekends," Alonso said in a post-race press conference. "This is very good and impressive what he’s achieving now. I’m giving my 100% and obviously, that’s not enough to be at that level at the moment so I need to keep improving." Alonso then highlighted how the situation at Alpine requires a driver to stay patient as it takes time to acclimatize to the Enstone-based outfit. "In a way we talk about this and we anticipated this a little bit when Carlos [Sainz] joined Renault," Alonso continued. "He was not as quick as (Nico) Hulkenberg I remember in the first couple of races. Daniel (Ricciardo) was arguable slower than Nico in 2019 and he was very good in 2020 in his second year. "Esteban was struggling last year with Daniel and he’s good in this second year, so it seems that it’s a team that is a little bit different to the others and you need an adaptation." "I’m trying to do this as quickly as I can. I’m not worried, it’s going to come very soon, if not already because Imola we crossed the line together and Portimao we crossed the line together but we will try to help the team as much as we can." Alonso's much-talked-about return to the sport has so far failed to live up to expectations. While it is definitely not easy to return to the premier class of motorsport after a two-year absence, Alonso will surely need to up his game in the coming races.
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