Pierre Gasly
“In Austria, I finished seventh and fifteenth at the Red Bull Ring in the two races there last year. The track is very short with quite a few straights and not many corners, so you need to optimise your car for those handful of corners. After my home race in France, now one week later it’s a home circuit for all of us as a Red Bull team. A lot will be expected of us there from Red Bull, from AlphaTauri and all the team’s partners. A full crowd of fans are being allowed in and I think that will be a good feeling having big crowds all the way around a racetrack. There should be a great energy and plenty of atmosphere, just like in the past. I can’t wait to race there, it’s going to be an exciting couple of weekends. They are obviously a pair of important Grands Prix for us and I hope we can continue to perform in a strong way, like we have been doing so far, scoring points in every race except the opening round of the season. We have to keep pushing like that.
We already saw last year that with two races on the same track, the gaps are very close, especially on what is a very short track, and you have to look to improve from one weekend to the next. Staying there two weekends in a row means the cars are optimised and of course we drivers have found out how to be on the absolute limit. It means that in Qualifying especially, it will be extremely tight.
Like last year, Pirelli will supply different tyre choices for the second race, which is a good idea, to ensure something changes, so that will be at least one new factor for the second weekend there.”
Yuki Tsunoda
“Austria is another circuit where I have raced before. In fact, last year in Formula 2, I took pole and finished second in the feature race of the second weekend we had there. That is good for my confidence, but in a Formula 1 car, it will be a quite different experience, so I will need to gradually build up my pace in practice and make progress through the sessions.
I enjoy driving this track as most of the corners are high speed, which I like. For Qualifying, it’s going to be very tight, because it is such a short lap and very quick, so you have to put it all together to nail your lap and have a good result. It can be quite challenging from the driving point of view, so I am really looking forward to it. I am going to enjoy having three races in three weekends, I am fit enough and have no worries from that point of view. It will be an important couple of weekends for all of us in the Red Bull family and it will be nice to race in front of a crowd for another race.”