Media day round-up at the Austrian Grand Prix
- Arran Lunt
- Jun 27
- 11 min read
Written by Arran Lunt, Edited by Marit Everett
Formula One returns from a two week break this weekend as round 11 gets underway at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
There’s plenty to discuss heading into Thursday's media day as several teams brought upgrades including the under pressure Ferrari, resurgent Sauber and Red Bull who will hope that they can carry their momentum from Canada through to this weekend and Silverstone.
The fallout from the McLaren drivers clashing last time out in Canada was also on the tip of the media’s tongue, as Aston Martin hinted at an upgrade for Silverstone whilst F1: The Movie was released in cinemas.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen has a record four wins around the home of Red Bull and didn’t rule out having the car this weekend to provide a fifth.
The Dutchman stated on Thursday, "In the past, we have had a lot of great races here—some of those were unexpected wins. We come into this weekend as, not as favourites for sure. But I know that myself and the team will always try to optimise everything that we can. But I’m excited. I’m here to do the best I can, and of course I hope to be on the podium.,".
Red Bull are one of the teams to have brought upgrades for this weekend, although it is rumoured that only Verstappen’s car will get the latest parts.
When asked about it he said, "I’m very happy that we have an upgrade here. And yeah, every little bit forward will help us be more competitive and hopefully close the gap a little bit.".
Yuki Tsunoda will hope to put in a good performance at his employers home race and have an incident free weekend. Tsunoda sounded optimistic about doing so.
"I didn't do much specific preparation for this weekend - just the usual. I'm happy with the approach I'm doing in previous race weeks"
"A couple things didn't work out, but part of that is out of my control, like last time in FP3. At the same time I'm definitely going in the right direction with my progress. It might not be the speed everyone wants, but I just have to put it all together and I’m feeling more confident every race week" he said.
Ferrari
Ferrari have a new floor for this weekend they hope can bring both cars into podium contention, although currently the effectiveness of the upgrade in performance is unknown, as alluded to by Lewis Hamilton.
“You always want upgrades so I’m grateful for every little bit. What I would say is don’t expect much change. We don’t really know, so hopefully we will find out tomorrow whether or not it’s a step in the right direction”
Ferrari failed to quiet the noise surrounding possible staff changes in Canada as they underperformed amid the Italian media piling huge pressure on the Scuderia so much so that Fred Vasseur publicly addressed the rumours.
“From the beginning of the weekend we have just been speaking about this [Vasseur being replaced]. If it’s [the media’s] target to put the team in this situation, they have reached their goal.” Vasseur said in Canada two weeks ago.
“To decide one day ‘this one will be replaced, this one is useless’. Honestly, it’s very harsh.”
“These journalists need to consider that these people have families. This is completely disrespectful.”
Charles Leclerc will miss FP1 as rookie Dino Beganovic will take the session. The Monegasque driver is hopeful the upgrades will close the gap to the front.
"We are bringing some new parts this weekend and I’m hopeful to see improvement that will close the gap to McLaren and Red Bull. To challenge them a bit more than the first part of the season.” Leclerc said.
Mercedes
George Russell will be hoping to capitalise on a fantastic win at the last round in Montréal and all but secure a Mercedes contract extension that is quickly becoming the hottest topic in the paddock.
“I think the performance of Canada was definitely a bit of a one off.” Russell said.
“Our car performs really well when the tyres are not overheating, so on tracks where it's low speed corners, where it's smooth tarmac, hopefully when the temperature is down.”
“At fast tracks where it's hot, like Barcelona, like Imola, probably here, it's not so good. So we have room to improve.” He stated.
Kimi Antonelli has already seen success after passing his school exams in the weeks between Canada and Austria, a fantastic achievement to go with his first ever podium in Formula One. When asked about it on media day the 18 year old expressed his relief in finishing school:
“I'm super happy to have finished this journey [school], which was important to finish. Now I can just focus on racing, and it's a big relief as well.”
On scoring a podium in Canada, making him only the third youngest ever F1 driver to do so, he said:
“It took me a little while to realise what happened in Canada. It was such a special moment. I remember going on the podium, I had goosebumps, especially also after hearing people chanting my name. I think it was a really special moment.
“To see the whole team in the pit lane, my Dad as well, I think is a memory that I will remember forever”.
McLaren
Inevitably, the first questions to be levelled in the direction of either papaya driver was regarding the championship clash in Canada and how the collision has unfolded post race within the team.
Oscar Piastri said, “It was fine. Half of it was on the way to the Stewards' room, so that was fun. But, no, all good. We spoke about it honestly before we even got back to the team. Lando [Norris] put his hands up and apologised. So, all good and looking forward to going racing again.”
Pressed further on if papaya rules were still in place, Piastri elaborated further on his track battles with Lando Norris.
"A fair opportunity is all we are asking for," he replied.
"What we have done well before Canada is acknowledging that it is a possibility [a collison], and what we have done well since is in dealing with it,
“Lando and I don't just want one opportunity this year to win a Championship, we want many more. We want success for years to come and having the team united is a simple way to do that.” Piastri added.
Lando Norris was similarly full of praise for the way McLaren as a unit dealt with post race Canada. Likely helped in part by the way Norris took ownership of the incident immediately after it had happened, even apologising to Piastri during a post race interview.
"The team handled everything really well, never the nicest of positions to be in, more for myself rather than anyone else," Norris said
“I misjudged something, it was my fault. So I took it on the chin.”
Williams
Alex Albon has suffered back to back DNF’s in Canada and Spain, an unfortunate turn of form for the Williams driver as the car has been performing well of late. Despite this, Albon is still looking positively at the weekend.
He said: “I feel like we are in [with] a better chance than we have been in previous years. If we were to get a podium it wouldn’t be on pure pace but it does feel like the podium chances often happen to the top midfield team of that weekend and we are in that position quite often”
Carlos Sainz echoed Albon in praising the car's performance of late:
“In a general feeling, it's one thing to have clean weekends and maximise the car performance because I feel we have a lot more potential than what we have shown in the last three races.”
Days after the Canadian Grand Prix it was announced that James Vowles would be staying at the Grove based outfit, putting pen to paper on a new long term contract. It has been clear that Williams have been on an upwards trajectory since Vowles’ appointment in 2023 and Albon was quick to acknowledge the impact the team principal has had on the team.
"I would say the biggest impact is that he is direct, he's honest and he's very simply just a good leader. He tells us the direction and we follow.
“I think it's a great vote of confidence for all of us.”
Alpine
It has been a tough season for Alpine both on and off track. Pierre Gasly had a torrid race in Canada as he started from the pitlane and was unable to make an impression on the top ten, ultimately finishing 15th.
Gasly had this to say about the disappointing performance: “We had an unfortunate Q1 exit, which put us on the back foot, starting from the pit lane, in a DRS train for 40 laps. So, it was a very frustrating race. I think the pace was not too far off to challenge the last few points inside the top 10, but starting from the pit lane obviously was going to be tricky.”
Gasly can take solace in Brad Pitt singling him out as a potential Hollywood star. During questions from the floor regarding the comments, Gasly himself joked that if he doesn't score some more points for Alpine, he might be in Hollywood sooner than planned.
Franco Colapinto heads into the final race of his initial five race contract this weekend. Brought in to replace Jack Doohan, it was understood Colapinto’s performance would be assessed after the five races, however, the latest rumours suggest he will continue on a “race-by-race” basis.
“I think it's very early to evaluate, it's only been four races and to be honest, here in F1, it takes a while to adjust to a new car, to learn what I need from the Alpine to myself.” Colapinto said.
“We've been working very hard with the team, I think the most important thing is that we've been able to understand the areas that I had to improve, that I had to be better. These are areas they had to help me with the car and we have been learning.”
Sauber
Sauber have brought further upgrades this weekend in Austria as they hope to build on back to back point scoring races in a progressively improving season.
"In Barcelona we brought an upgrade that worked well, so we expect a jump with the new parts,
"We are going in the right direction, closer and closer to fighting for points." says Bortoleto, reiterating the team are now closer on pure pace to score points instead of hoping for fortuitous race events.
Nico Hulkenberg scored an incredible 5th place finish in Barcelona the last time Sauber brought an upgrade package, following up with an 8th place finish in Montréal.
“I think, there's been a definite upturn and positive signs of performance since the updates in Barcelona, that's so good and we’ll try to continue that points streak, it's not going to be easy especially here in Austria where the lap is so short and there's tightest of margins every year. Everything will matter again.” Hulkenberg explained before hinting at the upgrade for the weekend ahead.
“Yeah we have a small update, a small tweak to the floor but we all know the floor is a very sensitive area, that's where a lot of the performance comes from. We’re hopeful this will improve it even a little more and help us in the fight.”
Haas
The American team have scored points in two out of three previous visits to Austria with a double points finish in 2022. Esteban Ocon hopes the team can draw on historic results to score again but is cautious the result is harder than the theory to execute.
“It was very nice for our 200th Grand Prix [in Canada] that we managed to score points. The team has a good record here. We will see, it is great the team had good races historically as you can rely on some data but we need to see when we put the car down in FP1 compared to the others” Ocon said.
Oliver Bearman has tasted success at the Red Bull Ring on several occasions through multiple disciplines winning most recently in Formula Two and is hopeful the team can score points again this weekend.
“This track has been good to me definitely. I had a really good race here in my first year of F2, coming through the field and just missing out on the podium, then the second year of F2 winning.
“I really enjoy driving this track, its really hot this weekend but looking forward to it.
“They seem to have good results here [Haas]. The track definitely suits the car, let's see about this year with our straight line speed and how we can get on but I think we have that chance this weekend.”
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso has scored points in the previous two races having gone the first eight without achieving a top ten finish. Team-mate Lance Stroll in the same period had three points finishes despite taking time out to recover from a recurring wrist injury.
The 2025 season could be a tale of two halves for Aston Martin as recently the AMR25 has seen an uplift in performance with a further upgrade expected in Silverstone.
“We were able to be more competitive, with the car more alive, we understood a couple of things that the car needs to really work in the right window. But it is still a tricky package and we expect here in Austria to be a little bit more challenging than the last few races, we still have some new parts for maybe Silverstone next week, so you know, the team is pushing hard and we are enjoying more of this part of the year.” explained Alonso.
Stroll was pressed on recent comments from Adrian Newey suggesting there is a lack of correlation between performance seen in the simulator and how that translates to track on a race weekend.
“Adrian wants to make the simulator better so things can correlate better for future updates, how to develop the car and really trust the simulator as a tool to develop the car, bring actual bits to the car that will make it faster. At the moment I don't think we are 100% there on that front. I think there are still question marks when we trial the simulator is it actually going to go faster on the real car.” Stroll surmised.
Racing Bulls
Isack Hadjar had a frustrating weekend in Canada having initially qualified 9th but was hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Williams’ Carlos Sainz resulting in starting 12th on the grid for Sunday's race. At the chequered flag, Hadjar was 16th ending a points scoring run stretching back to Miami in May.
“Our ride was quite terrible, but somehow we managed to be in Q3. But you can do those things on one lap; over 70 laps it’s much harder to be at the very maximum of what the car can do.” Hadjar said.
“If the car is able to go to Q3 [in Austria], then I’ll go to the maximum I can, to top the midfield. It’s a track I really enjoy. I’ve been competitive in the past.”
Liam Lawson started the race in Canada from the pit lane after changes were made to his car under parc ferme conditions, including a new power unit being fitted. However, he eventually retired on Lap 53 due to a cooling issue. Despite a tough weekend last time out, Lawson is excited for his first race at the Red Bull Ring.
“I’m excited, it's a new track, in Formula One for me, I haven't done it here in Formula One, and obviously a home Grand Prix for Red Bull as well.”
“The difference between Q1 and Q3 can be a tenth and that's really really close so it depends how you look at it. At the same time, the race is very very long, the last couple of years it's been two stops with a bit of deg, so you need to have a car that can pass, a car that is quick in the race otherwise you’ll just fall back.”
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