REPORT: No points in Austria

The 2024 Austrian Grand Prix delivered a dramatic finish, but we were not in a position to benefit and ended P15 and P19.

Logan Sargeant’s afternoon changed at Turn 3 as he made contact with Lance Stroll, damaging his front wing and forcing him to pit at the end of the first tour.

Alex Albon had filtered up the order during the first pit stop window, before coming in on Lap 12 for a set of fresh hard tyres, returning to the circuit in P19.

Within a couple of laps, Alex was battling with the other lap one stopper, Charles Leclerc, making a move on the Monegasque driver at T3.

Logan made his second stop of the afternoon on Lap 20, switching onto new hard tyres from his longest stint of the afternoon.

Having made up ground on the Alpine duo during his second stint, Alex had the French pair pass him on successive tours but kept tabs on them as they battled.

Alex came in for the final time on Lap 39, fitting new hards to take him to the end. Unfortunately, he ran over the white line on pit entry, earning him a five-second penalty.

Logan stopped for the final time on his 49th lap, putting on one-lap old mediums to take him to the flag. With the short nature of this circuit, the remainder of his race was spent serving blue flags for the leaders.

Stroll got past Alex on Lap 55, but couldn’t shake off our Thai racer, who was right behind him until the very end.

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed in the closing stages when the leading pair of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided.

Alex couldn’t regain the place on Stroll, but kept Tsunoda at bay on the road, only being relegated behind the Japanese driver once the penalty was applied.

“I believe P12 or P13 was possible today,” Alex shared post-race. “I know it’s not points but I don’t like finishing behind where I think we could’ve finished.

“With the pit stops, I lost a lot of time, either fighting with cars then boxing straight afterwards or coming out into dirty air.

“I don’t think it was easy out there with it being a short track and pit stops being a bit trickier, and I know it was my fault for crossing the line, but it’s just frustrating.

“We do have some learnings from this weekend that we can take to Silverstone, however there are still some questions as I didn’t expect us to be lacking in performance this much.

“Hopefully, we won’t suffer the same problems next week and can come back stronger.”

Logan continued by saying: “It’s been a tough afternoon. I damaged my front wing on the first lap and from there I was praying for a Safety Car that never came.

“I feel like the pace was okay relative and it was a good step forward from yesterday but still a painful day.

“Generally, things are moving in the right direction, but we need to find some more pace in the car.”

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director, concluded by commenting: “It was a tough day for both drivers, firstly with Logan making contact on the first lap, requiring him to pit for a new front wing, and Alex struggling to get good track position and clean air, impacting his ability to fight through the field.

“We also knew today, with the high temperatures, was going to be a tyre management challenge.

“It’s been a tough two weekends for the team, last time out in Barcelona and here in Austria, however, we will look to take the learnings from this weekend and come back stronger next weekend for our home Grand Prix at Silverstone.”