Otmar Szafnauer: It’s always great to race in the US

With 18 points on Suzuka, the Alpine F1 returned to fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. For the Austin stage, the French team is preparing the latest update to the car this year – and hopes to maintain this position until the end of the season. Sports director Otmar Szafnauer looks forward to the race in Texas…

Q: What do you think of the upcoming race in Austin?
Otmar Safnauer: Racing in the US is always great – I feel at home, especially in Austin, which is loved by many in Formula 1. There is a demanding track for cars and racers, where races usually turn out to be spectacular.

Fast first sector, long straight back, a few fast corners at the end where you can overtake. Now the track has been repaired, after we got rid of several irregularities last year that hindered us a lot. We’ll see if we can cope with them on Friday.

Q: What updates is the team preparing for Austin?
Otmar Safnauer: I have to say that the teams have made a fantastic effort this year to complete the cars. We also did our best. We put in new bottoms in Singapore and Japan and it worked exactly as we hoped. The effect was especially noticeable on Suzuka, on a more traditional track than Marina Bay.

In Austin, we are making a minor adjustment to the bottom, which will be the last update to our car this year.

Q: Were you excited to return to Suzuka after the double retirement in Singapore?
Otmar Safnauer: It was important to recover from this disappointment, but we were able to perform well in Suzuka. I am impressed with the work of the team – we quickly forgot about the failed Grand Prix and in just a few days we achieved the best result of the season.

We need to perform just as well a few more times and avoid reliability issues – then the stated goals will be achieved.