REPORT: Friday Practice Complete in Austria

The team are deep into data analysis after a busy opening day at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix, with two full race distances completed across the two sessions at the Red Bull Ring.

As always, FP1 was about finding a rhythm and Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were quickly into their groove, finishing the opening hour in P7 and P8 whilst getting time on both the Medium and Soft tyre.

Alex’s best time was a 1:05.946, with Carlos slotting in just behind with a 1:06.017.

FP2 saw the team run on both the Hard and Soft tyre, ending the hour with a high-fuel run to prepare for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

We wrapped Friday’s final hour on track in P16 and P17, with Alex’s best time of 1:05.765 marginally ahead of Carlos’ 1:05.814.

Speaking after FP2, Alex shared: :Yes, we're a little bit confused ourselves as well. It's not feeling terrible up there, but it's not feeling fantastic. We need to understand the wind change.

"We know that we don't like certain winds which might have hit us in a non-favourable way. Also, we're still okay on the harder compounds. It seems like when we put on the Softs we fall back. We need to figure that out. We need to experiment a bit in FP3 and we've always been able to bounce back to a certain point.

"The track should be much hotter tomorrow, which means it kind of resets anyway. For tomorrow, I'm confident if we can get the tyre working, I think we should have the car and we've got the race pace, so let's see."

Carlos commented: "Overall, I think our performance has been encouraging despite the time sheet after FP2. We clearly had some issues putting a lap together on the Soft tyre, but on the Medium and Hard tyres I felt very competitive out there.

"Compared to other teams, we are struggling to maintain the grip through the lap on the Soft tyre. We will look into it closely tonight. Our race pace seems okay, so we’ll try to find answers for the softer compound and improve as the weekend goes by."