AlphaTauri’s Egginton on Tough Austrian Weekend: “We’ve got a lot to review back at base”

Jody Egginton admitted the Austrian Grand Prix was a difficult race for Scuderia AlphaTauri, with neither Pierre Gasly nor Yuki Tsunoda finding themselves in contention for the top ten.

Gasly collected a penalty for a collision with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Sebastian Vettel, as well as another for exceeding track limits, on his way to fifteenth at the Red Bull Ring, while Tsunoda struggled for pace throughout as he ended sixteenth.

Egginton, the Technical Director at AlphaTauri, says the team were on the back foot throughout the weekend in Austria, and there is a lot of data and information to look over before the French Grand Prix later this month in order to prevent a repeat of their struggles.

“A very difficult race for us today, as we weren’t able to make any progress,” said Egginton.  “Additionally, on Pierre’s side we had a couple of penalties which set us back further.

“It was clear early on that it was going to be a two-stop race, so we brought Pierre in to try and move forward with that, however he hit a bit of traffic, holding him up, and from then on it was tough.

“Likewise with Yuki, we tried to get him in a stronger position through the stops, but he didn’t have the pace today. We’ve been on the backfoot all day and unfortunately have come away with nothing.

“We’ve got a lot to review back at base. Now our focus is to get our updates to the car ready for the French Grand Prix and get ourselves back in to the midfield fight.”

The double points score by the Haas F1 Team meant AlphaTauri slipped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship after the race in Austria, with only Aston Martin and Williams Racing now behind them heading into the second half of the season.