Alex: “It's exciting to be back in the fight”

Alex Albon was on FIA press conference duty earlier today in Azerbaijan, prior to the first F1 Sprint weekend of the season.

Naturally there was plenty of discussion around the all-new format confirmed on Tuesday, but the 27-year-old also fielded questions related to the team’s wider chances on the streets of Baku.

Here’s what our number 23 had to say in front of the press.

For midfield teams, there will be a bit more going on and I think on Friday, there's maybe some teams that won't get it perfect and that's good for us.

I think it creates an opportunity for some others to get on the pace early and I think we welcome that.

It's a good change from the original Sprint race format, where obviously it would sometimes filter out the differences in qualifying. This is a good way to do it.

Along with Monza and those kind of circuits, it [the Baku City Circuit] does have that aero efficiency that suits us but these corners, these almost repetitive 90 degree, third-gear corners… I wouldn't say low speed is necessarily our strength.

So it's going to be a mix. We're obviously hopefully going to be quite good down the straights, but it's more or less about minimising as little an amount of time through the corners, so let's see.

We had a brake failure in Jeddah, we had a human error in Melbourne, but I think if you look at how we've gone about this year, we've made some great steps forward.

Melbourne, we were generally the best of the rest outside of the top four teams, so it's looking on the up and I think the motivation and the energy in the team is very positive.

It's exciting to be back in the fight and to be able to fight some midfield teams. I do think some of the races earlier in the year have suited our car a bit more; the circuits tend to suit us, hopefully that is the same here in Baku. We just need to make the most of the opportunity.

I think there are a few teams now bringing some upgrades soon, already in Baku some of the midfield teams are, so it's going to be a development race. But for now we're well in the mix and it's nice to be there.

No, nothing major so kind of seeing how our rivals improve and looking around us a little bit.

What I'd add is that there are four teams now that kind of regularly score points, and it's the top eight that do score points in the Sprint, so it's going to be one of those situations where I think you're going to get quite a repetitive order in that Sprint: the same people scoring points.

Maybe, if anything - I think they're racing each other anyway - but I think there is that kind of divide between the midfield and the top end.

Already, in the normal races, most of the positions are fought… ninth and tenth. I think it's been a big battle in the midfield - a good one - and that's been those positions and of course, you capitalise when there's the DNF or to get eighth or seventh, whereas now we need a bit more than that.

I think it's going to be tricky to get into the points for a Sprint race.