Find the teams at GP Netherlands | Strategy bears the brunt of the chaos
In ‘This is what the teams think…’ directs F1Maximum the sights on the water smaller teams in Formula 1: Alpine, Aston Martin, Williams, Alfa Romeo and Haas. Below you can read what the drivers of the relevant racing stables have to say about their recent performance on the track.
alpine
After a somewhat mediocre qualifying session, Alpine recovered with another points result. This is the fifth consecutive time that Alpine has scored points. Esteban Ocon satisfied the ninth position and was with the results of the team. “I had a mega start, I made up some spots at the start of the race, and that puts us in a position to fight for points,” said the Frenchman. Ocon assumes that Monza is the car then Zandvoort, and wants to win points for the team there again.
Fernando Alonso takes advantage of Carlos Sainz’s five-second penalty. Alonso finished in second position and scored the most points for Alpine today. “It was a good race for us today, we did stop very early for the hard tyre, but the speed of the car was good. We battle behind us until the last lap with the drivers on fresh tires. It’s like qualifying to the flag. It’s a good result, so let’s keep it up in Italy!’
Aston Martin
For Lance Stroll the race was pretty straight forward as he finished where he started: in P10. He stayed out of the chaos of the virtual safety cars and the safety cars and had a stable result. “Overall it was a good weekend looking at the show, but we were a bit unlucky with the strategy today,” said the Canadian. “Without the safety car we could have fought for P7. Our race pace was over the weekend and I was strong in the car.’
Sebastian Vettel wrote it from a different angle: “We didn’t have the best race pace, and we would have had a better result if we hadn’t started so far behind,” says the four-time world champion. “The strategy could have worked, but I spent a lot of time in my battles on the track. I did enjoy my fight with Mick, but this race was not for us.’ Vettel was also given a five-second penalty for the effect of blue flags.
AlphaTauri
The AlphaTauri drivers also had a mediocre weekend. With Pierre Gasly just outside the points and Yuki Tsunoda with a withdrawal, the Italian team was not on the right track. “Coming in 11th is never a good feeling,” Gasly begins. We struggled, mainly because we lacked speed, but the speed on the hard tire looked good. We are now going to Monza for the last European race of the season, and then we will come back stronger.”
Tsunoda feels the same way, he didn’t have a good day on the Dutch circuit either. “It was a failed day, mainly because our race pace looked pretty good and we are hoping for points,” says the Japanese. “After I stopped for the hard tire I had the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. I came in again, but the feeling didn’t go away. Later on, the team confirmed that we are shutting down the car.
Williams
Alexander Albon drove a long first stint on the medium tire and seemed to do good business in the midfield. The troubled phases of the race unfortunately broke the strategy. “We didn’t have high expectations,” Albon begins. “But today proved that we are not far from the points. It’s positive and I don’t think we’re so afraid of a track like this in the future. We can still get something out of the car, we’re working on that now.’
Teammate Nicholas Latifi finished in P18. ‘It was a race to forget’, a toe. “We struggled with speed all weekend and it confused me a bit. Due to a problem in qualifying we couldn’t really take the chance to show where we are in terms of speed. This can be learned from.’
Hare
Despite Mick Schumacher’s good session, Haas Zandvoort got no points in qualifying. Kevin Magnussen briefly left the track and ended up in the gravel, but was still able to drive on. “If you look at the wall like that, it’s not good, but that was my own mistake,” the Dane recognizes. ‘I’m doing my best. I could only make up a few spots. It was a bit of a wasted weekend so I hope we can do better next time.”
Schumacher imposes the problem at the pit stops. “We haven’t had the best pit stops, so I think it took us out of the points this weekend. Nevertheless, it was good to be here and I enjoyed battling with Sebastian. These things are happening, we are looking ahead to shoot points in the upcoming races.”