– In Italy, Audi narrowly missed out on World Championship points. Nevertheless, the team is optimistic ahead of the Madring debut at the Spanish Grand Prix and wants to continue the turnaround of recent weeks.
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Before the race in Monza, the team with the four rings had twice in a row managed to score important World Championship points. In both cases, Nico Hülkenberg was able to reach the top 10 after a bumpy start to the season.
“Overall, we have moved in the right direction in the last few races,” he said ahead of the race weekend in Madrid. Besides the performance of the power unit, Hülkenberg had publicly emphasized several times that the team must also translate its theoretical performance into qualifying and race. This was successfully achieved in Hungary and Belgium.
“If we manage to get a grip on [the new track] early,” said Hülkenberg, “then hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position to finish the European season positively.”
Madring: New territory for everyone
What exactly awaits Hülkenberg, Bortoleto, and Audi in Madrid remains a mystery for all involved, as well as for the rest of the field. Race director Allan McNish expressed a similar view and emphasized: “When you drive on a track for the first time, it always carries a certain unknown.”
Accordingly, McNish mentions that Audi must get used to the new course in Madrid as quickly as possible in order to benefit from it in qualifying and the race.
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Chaos preprogrammed?
The course in Madrid has attracted attention not only because the official Spanish Grand Prix is held there instead of at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. During the first Formula 3 test on the track, there were numerous incidents.
This year’s Formula 3 season finale will be held as a support event to Formula 1 and could also become interesting for Audi. After all, Freddie Slater, an Audi junior and highly rated young talent, is fighting for the drivers’ championship in Madrid.
Photo gallery: Monza: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
The numerous elevation changes or the steep curve also cause many question marks ahead of the race weekend, not to mention the possible chaos.
Local hero Carlos Sainz, for example, expects many safety car phases or red flags. So far, only Ferrari among the Formula 1 teams has had the chance to get a first impression of the new race track through a filming day.
Before the Spanish Grand Prix, Audi is eighth in the Constructors’ World Championship with 16 points. They are five points behind the seventh-placed Haas team.
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