Alpine F1 Team pre Styrian Grand-Prix – Climb every mountain

BWT STYRIAN GRAND PRIX
Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
25-27 June 2021

The team heads to the Austrian hills for the first of two rounds in Spielberg. Executive Director Marcin Budkowski reflects on a bittersweet French Grand Prix and looks ahead to the challenges of racing in Austria.

What are the main takeaways from last weekend’s French Grand Prix?

We left France a bit disappointed with Fernando in eighth place and Esteban outside the points as we felt we had the pace to score bigger points. The race was all about tyre management and it impacted teams and even drivers within the same teams in a very different way.

Esteban’s race was more or less over after heavy graining compromised his first stint, while Fernando tip-toed on his starting set of Mediums and managed to keep his Hards alive to regain positions and put on a great fight for sixth place. He’s definitely gained a lot of confidence in the car and is back at a very high level of competitiveness.

What are the main challenges of Spielberg?

Austria is a short track with only nine corners, which means that gaps in qualifying are very small and every hundredth of a second can make a difference. A lot of the lap is spent at full throttle with most of the sectors medium to high-speed. The kerbs are big there and can be punishing for the bodywork and suspension. On top of all this, it’s a bit harder on tyres than France so that is something to be wary of after last weekend.

We’ve seen in the past that the weather in Austria at this time of the year can be tricky to predict as well. It’s usually one of the warmest races on the calendar but storms are frequent as well. Last year in Austria we had a wet qualifying, so we’ll keep a close eye on the weather radar for the whole weekend.

What are the team’s expectations for this weekend?

In the past it’s not been the team’s strongest circuit, but we have addressed a lot of our previous issues last year and this is not a circuit we fear anymore. We are determined to build on the promising pace we showed in France last week and return to having both cars in Q3 and both cars well inside the points.
 

Tyres:

Hard, C2 (White)
Esteban – 2
Fernando – 2

Medium, C3 (Yellow)
Esteban – 3
Fernando – 3

Soft, C4 (Red)
Esteban – 8
Fernando – 8

Esteban Ocon
Starts – 4
Points – 16
Average Points – 4
Fastest Qualifying – 1:04.643 (2020)
Fastest Lap – 1:08.659 (2017)
Best Finish – 6th (2018)
Best Grid Position – 5th (2020)

Fernando Alonso
Starts – 7
Points – 14
Average Points – 2
Fastest Qualifying – 1:05.058 (2018)
Fastest Lap – 1:08.661 (2018)
Best Finish – 5th (2014)
Best Grid Position – 4th (2014)

Renault-powered cars in Austria
Starts – 96
Wins – 4
Podiums – 10
Pole Positions – 5
Fastest Laps – 6
Total points – 196
 

Last season’s team result
Ricciardo
Grid – 10th
Race – DNF

Grid (Styria) – 8th
Race – 8th

Ocon
Grid – 14th
Race – 8th

Grid (Styria) – 5th
Race – DNF

– Renault also photos

 
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