21/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: With the cover of clouds disappearing slowly before the race start and the high track temperatures appearing again, we knew it was going to be crucial to find free air and stop at the right moments.
Alex had a great start and found himself stuck behind the Astons. Unfortunately, we couldn't get past Fernando after the first stop, who was working to help his teammate's race. From then, it became a difficult race for Alex finally finishing in P14. Logan had a difficult start and lost positions, finding himself constantly in dirty air after every stop but showed flashes of good pace throughout his stints. A disappointing afternoon but we have learned a lot again in these hot conditions, making progress since Barcelona which is promising. Now we turn our heads to Belgium which should suit our car much better.
Alex Albon: We need to understand what happened today. I think we missed it a little with the strategy; if we didn't come out behind Fernando on the first stop, we would've been fine but as he was playing the team game and helping to back us up to help Lance, it impacted our race. We were planning the two-stop then changed to three-stop, so I started to push the tyres, however, we reverted to two, so you have to extend your stint and by that point, the tyres are gone. We had a great start today and despite being disappointed, we've gathered valuable learnings in these hot conditions.
Logan Sargeant: Today was okay. I was disappointed with my start and, around here, it's an uphill battle from there. From a pace perspective, it was a good day and overall, apart from my start, I'm happy with my weekend. The car felt better here than last year, which is a positive, but it was a difficult race. I did my best to come back through as best I could and we tried to be aggressive with stops, but it didn't really work out and we found ourselves in dirty air, increasing degradation. We'll keep going and try harder to pull it together in Spa.
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring here.