The Spaniard, who works for Aston Martin, finished second at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, a comparatively small 9.5 seconds behind Verstappen this season. As a tangible sign of an approaching turnaround, the third in the World Cup does not want to know that. “In Barcelona, two weeks before Canada, we were almost a minute behind the leaders,” said Alonso, adding: “I hope we can close that gap.”
However, the current performance of Aston Martin is heavily dependent on the track of the respective Grand Prix. “We had a different performance in Barcelona and Canada, a different feeling with the car. Hopefully we’re closer to Canada here,” emphasized Alonso. “It’s important for us to score points with both cars every weekend and to keep up the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari.”
Verstappen as favorite in Austria
The Austrian Grand Prix is the highlight for local motorsport fans. This weekend in Spielberg, Red Bull Racing will go into the race with championship leader Max Verstappen as the clear favourite.
Competition from Red Bull “eliminated”
Ferrari came to the Red Bull Ring with small upgrades, where Charles Leclerc had managed the last win for the “Scuderia” last year. Among other things, the front wing was modified. “Hopefully it’s another step in the right direction,” explained Carlos Sainz. But “to think that we could close the gap with an upgrade would be naïve and unrealistic”.
ORF timetable
Freitag:
1 p.m.: F1 news
1.25 p.m.: First training (start 1.30 p.m.)
4:00 p.m.: F1 news
4:55 p.m.: Qualifying (start 5:00 p.m.)
6.10pm: F1 Analysis
Saturday:
11.25 a.m.: F1 news
11:55 a.m.: Sprint shootout (start 12:00 p.m.)
4.00 p.m.: Sprint race (start 4.30 p.m.)
5.10pm: F1 Analysis
Sunday:
1:20 p.m.: F1 news
2.20 p.m.: The race (start 3.00 p.m.)
5pm: F1 Motorhome
Alonso’s Spanish compatriot admitted that the past year had been tough. “Now we are exactly at the point where we are trying to turn things around, make the car competitive again and win again. But it won’t be easy because there is another team called Red Bull that eliminated all the competition.”
Mercedes hopes for further progress
Mercedes also suffers from the Red Bull dominance. The Austrian racing team has won 18 of the past 19 races, for the former industry leader there was only one victory in the past year and a half by George Russell in November 2022 in Brazil. However, before the ninth round of the World Championship, he was confident: “Things are definitely going in the right direction. So this will be another interesting weekend.”
Unlike his stablemate Lewis Hamilton. The record world champion said the feeling in the W14 was still not what he wanted. “I’m still not able to push myself to the limit,” revealed Hamilton. “Real progress will only happen in the next few months. I can barely wait for it.”