Recovery signals
Internal controversies, chaos and disappointing results: all factors that had largely influenced theAlpine at this start of the championship, unlike the last two races of the season. Both in Canada and last weekend in Barcelona, the two drivers of the French manufacturer both finished in the points, again with Gasly 9th followed by Ocon. A ‘double’ in the top-10 that had never occurred in this championship before Montreal, and which also contributed to a slight rise in the Constructors’ standings too, with Alpine now in 7th place, one point ahead of Haas.
The Barcelona experience
The question is almost obvious: was it just a ‘chance’, or will this result be repeated also in Austria? The answer will come only and exclusively this weekend at the Red Bull Ring for the eleventh GP of this season, but while waiting for the event in Spielberg, in the meantime all the happiness of Pierre Gasly: “I returned from Barcelona very satisfied, because we achieved three consecutive points finishes – explained the Frenchman, also referring to his 10th place in Monaco – they were three good performances in which we managed to improve the overall package even without making updates to the car. After Barcelona we move directly to Austria and an intense Sprint weekend. Spielberg is a short lap, the shortest for lap times all year, with only nine corners. It is a challenging circuit with curbs, difficult braking zones and many high-speed corners. In Austria it is always a very nice event, there is a great atmosphere and a place where I enjoyed racing. We must take advantage of the lessons learned from Barcelonaespecially with regards to High speed performance and balance, and apply them here this weekend. Since it’s a Sprint, we need to be up to speed straight away and put ourselves in a position to compete in both races.”
Q3 minimum target
A track that Gasly, as well as his teammate, likes Esteban Oconalso encouraged by his performance in Spain but with his future in F1 still in doubt: “I have always liked racing in Austria – he has declared – I have good memories here. In 2020, after a year of absence from racing, Spielberg’s was the first race of the season. I remember the very wet qualifying that year, when we managed to qualify in fifth place. In 2022 we had a good weekend here, taking ten points with fifth place. The track is short, so the opponents are usually close together and every hundredth and thousandth of a second counts. We have to finding the right balance between high speeds and the aim is to maintain the positive trend, which means aiming for Q3 again and, of course, valuable points.”
