Riccardo: I am motivated and charged to fight

After 12 Grands Prix, AlphaTauri is in last place in the constructors’ championship, but the team hopes to progress in the second part of the season…

Daniel Rickardo: “I am really looking forward to the next stage in Zandvoort, where the second half of the season starts. Before the break I only had two races, so the last few weeks I have been training for the most part to improve my physical condition to attack in the second half of the season.

I’m happy to be back in racing, two stages with the team have been great. I am motivated and charged to fight and looking forward to the start in Zandvoort, where it is a very fast circuit with a great atmosphere.”

Yuki Tsunoda: “I was happy to score points on the last stage in Belgium – we haven’t finished in the top ten for a long time. I entered the summer holidays with a positive attitude and I use that motivation to start the second half of the season.

When the holidays started, I went to Tenerife to relax and then I trained in Austria for six days. I have clearly separated rest and training, which is much better than trying to combine them.

The training went well, I feel rested and ready for new challenges. It was important to take a few days off after a busy first half of the year and focus before returning to full training.

At the beginning of the week I was working on the simulator to prepare for the next two races. I’ve competed twice in Zandvoort and last year I even made it to the final of qualifying, but I never finished – and this time I really want to get to the finish.

I like this technical track with uniquely profiled sections, with an interesting mix of fast and slow corners. She is physically demanding.

So far I have no idea how we will perform here. Although everything went well in Spa, it was due to the characteristics of the circuit and the weather, but in Zandvoort everything is different. Here you need settings for medium downforce, but I hope we will perform well here as well.

As the track here is very narrow and difficult to overtake, we will concentrate on qualifying, which we had some problems with this season. Let’s see what eventually happens.”