– Audi is continuing to advance. At the Formula 1 race in Zandvoort over the weekend, the new factory team managed to score points for the fourth consecutive time and is slowly putting pressure on Haas in the Constructors’ Championship. Audi is only five points behind the US team in seventh place.
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While Haas missed the top 10 for the sixth consecutive time on Sunday, Nico Hülkenberg finished eighth as the “Best of the Rest” in the midfield behind the four top teams. Race director Allan McNish, however, warns against seeing such results as guaranteed now.
“I believe it is beyond question that this will be a very tough fight [in the midfield],” he emphasizes and recalls: “In the end, it’s about one or two positions. Because the group of four [top] teams has an advantage. And that advantage is too big to catch up.”
That means: If all eight drivers from Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull finish, all the remaining teams behind them usually only fight for the last two spots in the top 10. And according to McNish, this battle has become even tighter.
Aston Martin also joins the fight from now on
Because with Aston Martin, there is now another team that has caught up. Fernando Alonso finished ninth on Sunday, just one position behind Hülkenberg. “Alonso’s pace on the one-stop strategy was actually quite surprising in the end,” admits McNish.
In addition, the usual suspects Racing Bulls and Alpine are involved, with whom Audi has been fighting for the top midfield positions for months. According to McNish, it is therefore mainly about delivering error-free races, “because then we can seize the opportunities.”
“We have to keep improving the car,” he also knows. But: “In practice, the reality is that, in my opinion, most of the attention of everyone is now more focused on the coming years rather than necessarily on the end of this specific fight.”
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Photo gallery: Zandvoort: The driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
Or put differently: The Audi R26 will still be developed further, but the focus behind the scenes is already on the upcoming 2027 season. According to McNish, this is also the case with the other teams, and their own car is “already quite fast,” he emphasizes.
The race director explains that there have been no major updates since the race in Spielberg in June. “In this regard, there have been some details, but nothing significant,” he explains and adds: “Therefore, I think the base car is currently quite fast.”
Will the good Audi streak end in Monza?
“And that is a good foundation on which we can build,” says McNish, who is also aware that further top-10 finishes this year will not be a given. “There will be races where we don’t score points,” he says plainly.
“We had a very good streak, and we were able to score points whenever it was possible,” says McNish with regard to the fact that Audi has scored points at every weekend since the Grand Prix in Silverstone.
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The last pointless race in Spielberg was already two months ago. However, McNish fears that the Italian Grand Prix in just over a week will be one of the more difficult races for Audi. Because in Monza, engine power is especially important.
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And Audi has never made a secret of the fact that this area is currently still the biggest weakness of their own package. Nevertheless, according to McNish, they will again try to get the maximum out of it in Italy and hope that this will create opportunities.
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