Szafnauer happy with another double-point finish as Alpine extends lead over McLaren

BWT Alpine F1 Team‘s Otmar Szafnauer is pleased with the team’s performance at Sunday afternoon’s Dutch Grand Prix and believes the team can deliver another good weekend at Monza, Italy next weekend.

Saturday was a disappointing day for the French outfit when both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso failed to make it out of Qualifying Two – putting their cars twelfth and thirteenth respectively. The race was a lot stronger for Alpine, with the double World Champion finishing sixth, and Ocon finishing ninth, narrowly missing out on eighth.

As a result, Alpine took home ten points and outscored their Constructors’ Championship competitors – McLaren F1 Team – by four points. Alpine now find themselves twenty-four points clear of the papaya-coloured team and are well positioned to take fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.

“We’re very pleased to extend our advantage in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship by scoring ten points in Zandvoort today. It was always going to be a tough task to progress both of our cars from twelfth and thirteenth on the grid into the points, but we’ve achieved just that after a very strong race across the board,” said the Alpine Team Principal.

“Our strategy was decisive, using our knowledge from Friday Practice about the Hard tyre, which allowed both cars to be in a position to score good points. Fernando drove another great race, holding off Lando [Norris] at the end, with Esteban too doing a fantastic job to finish in ninth place and bring home valuable points.

“We will look ahead to Monza next weekend where we aim to conclude this triple header with another double points finish and, I can see no reason why that is not a possibility after two competitive weekends in Spa and here in the Netherlands. A great job by everyone at the team,” Szafnauer concluded.