I am delighted to be getting back to Austria and especially Spielberg. The atmosphere during the race weekend last year was amazing - it was a great experience. There were a lot of spectators in the grandstands and on the campsites. I like the track a lot, as it is a fast circuit which I am going to enjoy. Overtaking is rather difficult, but there are places where it is possible. I am looking forward to the race weekend.

This season it will be my first time driving a Formula One car in Spielberg. I am looking forward to racing there. It is quite a fast circuit, with many long straights combined with some high-speed corners. The last two corners before the start and finish line are my favorites, as they are very quick and you have to drive them very precisely. The long straights could be a benefit for us, but downforce is also required in the high-speed corners. I assume it will be a challenging weekend fighting against our main competitors, but I am confident we will extract the maximum out of our package.

The Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg can be considered, in terms of the set-up and aero configuration of the car, almost as a continuation of the previous race. The balance between the number of corners and lengths of the straights is similar to the Montreal track, yet their nature is substantially different with flowing bends in place of chicanes, and changes of elevation. We also expect that brakes will be a key factor there. For this race weekend the soft and super soft compounds have been allocated by Pirelli. After an extensive assessment of last week’s achievements, we will direct all our efforts again towards competing at a high level.