2026 Austrian Grand Prix - Preview

The first couple of races on European soil have delivered encouraging signs as the team established itself in the fight for the top of the midfield: work continues both on and off the track, with a package of updates coming to the two R26 cars and the confidence that the team will be in a position to convert performance into results.

As track action kicks off on Friday, Paul Aron will be making his second planned Free Practice appearance with the team, taking over Gabriel Bortoleto’s R26 for the opening practice session of the weekend.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: “We have seen encouraging signs in terms of performance and understanding the car in Monaco and Barcelona, even though we were not able to bring home the results our pace warranted. It is important we keep our focus and continue to work hard and develop our car in a highly competitive field. What the team is doing across all areas is translating more consistently on track, and this momentum is something we want to keep building on as we enter another set of back-to-back races, starting with Spielberg this weekend. Our goal is to keep moving forward, aiming to maximise everything we can extract on track.”

Nico Hulkenberg (Car 27): “The result in Barcelona was disappointing because we had the pace, the position and the opportunity to bring home a good result. Still, the two most recent events have shown that we are making steps in the right direction when it comes to performance. We have the pace to fight for points, and it is a matter of time until we reap the rewards of our work. Spielberg is next up, and it’s always a great event with a very unique layout and scenery. It’s a short track and deceptively easy: you don’t have a lot of chances to make up for errors, so qualifying well is important. But what matters most is putting together a clean weekend overall - three solid days without any mistakes.”

Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5): “We get to Austria knowing we should have scored points in recent events and didn’t do so: while that is obviously frustrating, we are also conscious of the performance we can deliver, and therefore we are looking forward to another chance to get in the top ten. I have some very good memories from last year’s race in Spielberg: I scored my first points in Formula One here and it was a great day for the team, with Nico in the points too. Obviously, that is something we would love to do again this year: I am confident in the work the team is doing and I am looking forward to the battles we are going to have this weekend.”