Keen to rejoin the midfield fight in Austria

“Confidence is vital in F1 and Silverstone delivered a nice boost on that front. The target now is to carry that momentum to Austria and over perform again.

“With the car we have, we must be ready to take advantage of situations that come our way. The rain during qualifying last weekend was a good equalizer and created an opportunity for us, albeit in conditions that were still very tricky. There were a lot of different factors at play during that session but everything came together nicely from my side and the car felt good straight out of the box on Saturday. You always hope that translates into a good lap time and thankfully it was good for a spot in Q3 – for the first time in my career.

“I kept my expectations in check before the race because it was a dry track and we know the limitations of our car. But as the laps played out, it was positive to see the pace we had, especially during my first stint. Sure, it helped being in the DRS train, but that was the same for everyone.
From my side, it was great to be in a proper fight for the first time this year. I was battling with the midfield cars that are, on paper, half to three quarters of a second quicker than me. So, racing with these guys was enjoyable and got the adrenaline and competitive feeling back again.

“Some floor damage at the end of my first stint didn’t help the end result because I had reduced downforce, but there were still many, many positive to take from Silverstone. That was really my first strong weekend of the year across qualifying and the race, so carrying that into Austria is the goal.

“The format this weekend will be a little different because we have the second Sprint race of the year. But I’ve always been a fan of those because it means you have to get on with it in FP1 and all your learning is done in that single session. I like that extra dimension.
I won’t have the upgrade that Alex used in Silverstone, but the early signs are that it has brought more performance. Hopefully we’ll get another good indication from the data this weekend and I’ll have even more reason to feel confident we can mix it with the midfield runners more regularly.”