Otmar Szafnauer admitted it was a tricky Hungarian Grand Prix for the BWT Alpine F1 Team after they were forced to attempt a one-stop strategy due to their remaining tyre allocations on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon ended the race eighth and ninth at the Hungaroring despite the strategy call, which required them to run the medium compound at the start before switching to the unfavoured hard compound until the end.
The pace on the hard tyre was not strong, and it meant the team came under attack in the closing laps from those on fresher tyres, particularly from Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Sebastian Vettel, although Ocon was able to hold the position ahead of the German.
Szafnauer, the Team Principal at Alpine, says it was a good achievement for the team to score six points in Hungary, and it gives them a four-point advantage over the McLaren F1 Team heading into the summer break.
“After scoring six points from today’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the team remains in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship as we head into the summer break,” said Szafnauer. “That in itself is a great achievement and gives us a real focus to push on and attack the remainder of the year when we head to Belgium next month.
“It was a tricky race for us today with varying strategies in place across the field. We opted for a one-stop with both cars, which meant we had to be quite careful across both stints on the Medium and Hard tyres to ensure we could reach the chequered flag with sufficient pace in hand.
“We did a good job in the end to hold off some others behind on two-stops who were coming on strong with fresher tyres. As always, we’ll review our race to see what we can improve for next time.”
Szafnauer says the whole Alpine team deserve a break following a tough opening thirteen races of the season, but he insists they will come back fighting across the rest of the season starting with the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.
“We’ll be ready to continue the enjoyable fight in the championship with our competitors when racing returns in late August,” said the American. “For now, after a busy season so far, the entire team deserves the break and we’ll certainly recharge our energy ready for the season resumption.”
