Racing Point F1 Team‘s Otmar Szafnauer has described the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday as “a highly entertaining race”, even though neither of the team’s drivers came away with points.
Canadian Lance Stroll finished in fourteenth position, while his team-mate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez finished just outside the points in eleventh.
The Silverstone-based squad have struggled all weekend with the high temperatures affecting their cars’ performance.
Their qualifying performance was also not ideal; this weekend was the eighth time this season that Stroll has failed to make it out of the first stage of qualifying.
Similarly, Pérez has failed to perform, recognising that his eleventh place finish demonstrated their lack of pace, and also their current standing at this point in the season.
The team are currently sitting in seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship, unable to keep up with the their closest rivals in the midfield.
Despite the difficulties faced by the team, Szafnauer remains optimistic.
“A highly entertaining race today, throughout the field. Obviously, we’re disappointed not to come away with points – but we were right in the mix of a tight midfield battle,” said Szafnauer.
He added that when things are very close in the battle between the midfield teams, a few tenths can make all the difference in terms of track position, feeling that it will stay like this throughout the rest of the season.
“When it’s this close, a tenth here and there can make a big difference and we were just shy of where we needed to be. But it looks like it’s going to ebb and flow throughout the season, so we need to keep our heads down and keep pushing.
“We now look forward to our home race at Silverstone.” he said.
