Otmar Szafnauer: I gladly admit my mistake with Halo. please

For the Austrian Grand Prix, Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer summarized the race at Silverstone and talked about the challenges ahead…

Q: How do you rate the results of the British Grand Prix?
Otmar Safnauer: At Silverstone, Fernando finished fifth, which allowed us to close the gap in fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. Unfortunately Sebastian’s retirement prevented two cars from earning points, now we know the reason was the failure of the fuel pump’s electric drive.

Esteban had a great race and recovered after an incident on the first lap. The damage looked worse than it actually was, the mechanics repaired the car while the race was stopped by red flags to get it back in the race.

I want to thank the mechanics not only for the aforementioned red flag repairs, but also for the fastest pit stop of the race.

There were many positive moments at Silverstone. Our novelties worked well, we were competitive on Saturday and Sunday. The negative point is that only one of our cars was able to finish, we have to focus on reliability to fight for fourth place in the constructors’ championship.

Q: What do you think of the incident in the first round?
Otmar Safnauer: The most important thing is that everyone is alive. The accident was really frightening, it developed according to a scenario that fortunately we don’t see very often. The FIA, Formula 1 and teams have worked hard for years to improve safety, the accident at Silverstone shows that these efforts were not in vain.

I have to admit that four years ago I was skeptical about the appearance of Halo, and now I am happy to admit my mistake. At Silverstone, we were once again convinced of the need for Halo for driver safety. We are looking forward to fighting Zhou and Elbon in Austria and are very happy that they are both doing well.

Q: What do you expect from the race in Austria?
Otmar Safnauer: Spielberg has a short course with nine turns. This season our car looks good in fast and medium corners, which are in Austria. The novelties we brought to Silverstone worked as we expected, allowing us to improve the car’s performance.

The weekend in Austria is the second round with a Saturday sprint this season. We have to adapt quickly – on Friday before qualifying we only have one training session, but I have no doubt that we will earn points on Sunday.

The weather can be unpredictable, but in sunny weather and in the rain we have the opportunity to perform well on the Austrian track. This is the home race for our title partner BWT, together with them we are really looking forward to this weekend and hope to succeed.