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BWT Alpine F1 Team had a busy weekend in Austria and managed to claim points in both the Sprint Race and the Grand Prix Race.
On Saturday (1st July) Esteban Ocon started in P8 whilst Pierre Gasly started in P12, both on Intermediates. A challenging opening lap brought Ocon to finish in P7 and Gasly to finish in P15, although the event was overshadowed by the news of the death of Dilano van ‘t Hoff in Race 2 of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in Spa-Francorchamps.
Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said “Today we raced with Dilano van ‘t Hoff firmly in our thoughts after the devastating incident in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in Spa-Francorchamps. Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones and friends, as well as the entire MP Motorsport team during this extremely difficult time. For us today in Spielberg, it was not a straightforward Sprint Race with Esteban scoring two points in seventh place. He did a magnificent job, racing firmly and defending smartly throughout.”
The team then looked ahead to Sunday’s Grand Prix where the bigger points were on offer. Gasly then took home two points with a P9 finish to bring the team’s total for the weekend to four points. Both drivers received a five-second penalty during the 71-lap race; Ocon’s for an unsafe release during his first pit-stop and Gasly’s for a track limits violation.
Ocon said “It’s not been an easy race for us today. Of course, it’s always disappointing to miss out on scoring points. We’ll need to sit down and carefully review the race to see where we can improve and ensure we can be more competitive on Sunday next week in Silverstone. We had contact with Yuki [Tsunoda] on the first lap and sustained some damage and then we had the penalty for an unsafe release later on, so it was certainly not our day!”
Gasly then added “I think we pretty much extracted the most we could today. While it’s satisfying to be back in the points, it’s not where we want to be as we aim to be much higher than ninth place. We’re lacking some pace compared to our nearest rivals and that showed today. I was pushing a lot and, in the end, we received a five-second penalty for track limits, like other cars again today. It probably doesn’t change the result, and only that we fought with Lance [Stroll] at the end rather than George [Russell] ahead.”
The team now looks ahead to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend and remains fifth in the Constructor Standings.
