A good start
Audi’s historic Formula 1 debut went very well. The former Sauber team, now the official factory team of the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer, proved to be one of the best in the entire midfield, placing its two cars in tenth and 11th positions. The best result was achieved by Gabriel Bortoleto, who had the satisfaction of gaining access to Q3, although he was then unable to compete in the session due to a technical problem that suddenly ‘shut down’ his R26. Given the troubles shown by many of their direct competitors (Cadillac and Aston Martin above all), the Teutonic team has much to celebrate.
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“It was an extremely encouraging qualifying session for the team – commented team principal, Jonathan Wheatley – and seeing Gabi reach Q3 in his first race with the Audi Revolut F1 Team was a special moment for all of us. It is a clear reflection of the hard work that has gone into building this program and bringing us to this point. Unfortunately, we had a technical problem at the end of Gabi’s last lap that prevented him from participating in Q3 and Nico also had a small problem that affected his last lap in Q2. Overall, this is a very positive start for the team. It is encouraging in terms of performance and is a testament to the collective effort of so many talented people across the organization”.
The drivers’ words
For Bortoleto the only regret is not being able to play his chances in Q3, but fortunately the problem that stopped him should not have repercussions for him tomorrow in the GP: “It was a very positive qualifying for the team – the Brazilian stated – being in the top ten in our first race weekend as the Audi team is something we can all be proud of, especially considering the amount of work done over the winter to fine-tune this car and make it competitive and to build a new power unit from scratch. Of course, it was frustrating not being able to take part in Q3 after getting there. We don’t yet know exactly what caused the problem at the end of qualifying: I started losing gears halfway through the lap and couldn’t get back to the pits, so it’s a problem we’ll analyze with the team. From what we’ve seen so far, it doesn’t look like a serious problem and we hope to be able to solve it for tomorrow. The car showed good potential. I don’t think many expected to see us fighting for a top-10 position so soon, so it’s a very encouraging start. Now the focus is on tomorrow. Starting from tenth position gives us a good opportunity and we hope to have a good race and fight with the cars in front”.
Less satisfied, however, was the team veteran, Nico Hulkenberg: “It was a rather challenging qualifying for us. We had a few things to manage at the start, so it took a little while to find the rhythm. In the end I had only one clean lap attempt in Q2 and I managed to put everything together well, which brings us to 11th place, a good starting point. There’s a lot to do in the cockpit with energy management, tires and traffic, so you have to stay hyper-focused on every lap, but we’re learning more every time we go out on track. Overall it’s a positive day for the team. Yesterday’s long runs were encouraging and we are in a good position for the race. With these new cars there are still many unknowns, so tomorrow could be a rather open day and we will try to make the most of every opportunity“.
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