2024 Austrian Grand Prix - F1 Sprint Qualifying

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: With only one Free Practice session, having the car in the right window for Sprint Qualifying was always going to be tricky. Unfortunately, Alex struggled with the balance of his car and didn’t make it out of SQ1. Logan did a good job and got into SQ2 with a clean and decent last push lap. In SQ2, we knew he had to give it his all to gain some places on the grid but unfortunately couldn't get it all lined up and his lap was deleted. Nevertheless, he will be in a good position tomorrow to fight and look out for opportunities. With Alex, we’ll make some changes to the setup after the Sprint Race, ahead of Qualifying, and will use the Sprint to gather valuable information for the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Logan Sargeant: SQ1 was a good build-up, however in SQ2, I didn’t quite get Turn 1 and 3 right, attempting to make it up in the second half of the lap. I managed this, but then clipped the gravel in Turn 6 and that was unfortunately out. I’m still happy with my session and think it’s a good place to be starting tomorrow. The conditions are changing from session to session. We are being proactive with set-up and countering the differences and I feel like we did a good job and turned things around from FP1 to Sprint Qualifying, so we’ll just keep trying to do a bit more of the same. It’s been a good step forward from Barcelona.

Alex Albon: I couldn’t quite pull it together through Turn 3 and 4, struggling with the balance and just not able to get around it. I tried to play around with driving styles and tools, but it didn’t really work. With one shot in Sprint Qualifying, I just didn’t get it right. I regret not being a bit more extreme with my changes from FP1 to Sprint Qualifying, but we’ll make some changes and try to get more out of it tomorrow.