25 June 2025
After a week of rest and some F1 The Movie highlights, BWT Alpine head to the glorious Styrian Mountains, setting their sights on improved results at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. With this being the first of a double-header, strong results will set the tone for this two-week thriller.
Round 11 of the FIA Formula One World Championship is an important one for the team, as Austria is the home of Alpine’s title partner, BWT. To celebrate the partnership, Pierre and Franco will be sporting special one-off pink race suits.
In 2024, Alpine saw themselves in the points with Gasly’s 10th place in the Styrian Hills, while Ocon heartbreakingly missed out in 12th position. On return in 2025, the team is aiming for one better, hoping to see both drivers in the points for the first time this year.
Looking Back: Melancholy Mood in Montreal
Montreal will feel like a weekend that could have been for Alpine. Franco’s qualifying performance saw him miss his first Q3 of 2025 by just two hundredths of a second, and he finished 13th in the race. Gasly, on the other hand, started from the pit lane and moved up to 15th by the end. Unfortunately, the difficulty in overtaking, the dirty air while following, and the DRS trains that formed in the mid-pack stifled the team’s strategy. This meant there was little ability to get past those in front.
Red Bull Ring Track Profile
Known as a driver’s circuit, Austria’s Red Bull Ring has the fewest corners on the F1 calendar, with just 10 turns making up the layout. With such a short lap, things happen quickly and pit wall decisions need to be made faster. Car setup and qualifying are crucially important this weekend, with drivers needing to manage track limits while staying off the kerbs as much as possible.
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First Grand Prix: 1964 (Zeltweg)
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Track Length: 4.318km
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Lap Record: 1:05.619, Carlos Sainz, McLaren, 2020
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Most Pole Positions: Alain Prost and Max Verstappen (3 each)
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Most Wins: Niki Lauda, Rene Arnoux, Nelson Piquet, Valtteri Bottas (3 each)
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Pole run to Turn 1 braking point: 233 metres
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Safety Car probability: 50% (based on the last 10 races in Austria)
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Pit stop time loss: 20.41 seconds
Pierre Gasly
After a frustrating Canadian GP, Gasly is looking to bounce back and has been working with the team at Enstone:
“I have been at the factory with the team to debrief and also to prepare Austria and Silverstone for this double header.”
He’s also ready to tackle one of the most challenging qualifying sessions of the season to date:
“Spielberg is the shortest lap time of the season and that makes it very intense. It has a lot of high-speed corners and hard braking zones which, despite only ten corners, makes it a challenging lap.”
Franco Colapinto
Franco comes into the weekend feeling confident on a track he knows:
“It is a track I know well from racing in junior series, most recently, securing a podium in last year's Formula 2 Feature Race. It's a real drivers' circuit, meaning you need to nail everything and keep a good, consistent flow as it's such a short lap time.”
He also understands the importance of qualifying in getting points in Austria:
“The pressure will be on to make sure we maximise everything in Qualifying to give us the best possible chance of securing points in the race.”
What to Watch in Austria
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Track limits. Who can set the time without it being deleted?
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Franco’s first visit to the Styrian Hills in a Formula One car
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Gasly’s qualifying pace. Can he push the limits for a Q3 berth?
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Strategy timing. With such a short lap, race strategy will be critical
Trak Racer x Alpine F1 Team
Trak Racer proudly supports the BWT Alpine F1 Team’s efforts across the Formula One calendar. The TRX was built by combining our sim racing expertise with technical insights from Alpine engineers. It remains the only cockpit officially approved by an active Formula One team.
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