Fernando Alonso hopes Aston Martin could find some more pace in Austria

Fernando Alonso looks ahead to his team's chances ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. The Aston Martin driver finds the timing of the sprint weekend unfortunate, but he believes that his team might fast again in mountainous Spielberg, he tells Formula1.com.

"I think the Sprint weekend will not be ideal for us," said Alonso. The Spaniard says that Aston Martin has only one free practice session to test the new parts before qualifying is already underway. Nevertheless, the circuit may bring advantages. "The circuit will be good and maybe better for the package as well, let’s say," he said. Alonso expects the characteristics of the Red Bull Ring to make his AMR-23 perform better.

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But the two-time world champion thinks that another team can show up and perform well in Austria, and that is his old team Ferrari: "Maybe good for Ferrari, they are historically good here as well with the long straight and short corners." Technical director Dan Fallows is curious to see how the updates will hold up in Spielberg: "We have seen over the last couple of events particularly, that our car, there are some circuits that suit it more, and some circuits that don't suit it quite as much. So, we’ve looked at concentrating on broadening that operating window of the car."