With only six races remaining, the arrival of the final updates will be crucial in the battle at the top between Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren for the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari is expected to introduce more updates as early as Austin, where they will try to recover the points lost in Singapore after a disastrous qualifying session.
The SF-24 once again demonstrated excellent race pace, which would have allowed it to fight for the podium without too much difficulty. However, Saturday’s issues forced Sainz and Leclerc to make a comeback, allowing McLaren to extend its lead in the standings.
Andrea Stella‘s team now has a 41-point advantage over Red Bull and 75 points over Ferrari, although everything still seems to be up for grabs.
The end-of-year surprise could be another one
Despite this, the end-of-year surprise might come from elsewhere, according to Oliver Oakes. The Alpine team principal spoke about the upcoming developments the French team will introduce. “I’m not worried about a lack of motivation in our drivers,” said Oliver Oakes. “At certain times, they’ve been a bit frustrated, as have I. But I’m confident we’ll see improvements towards the end of the season.”
“We’re not in sync with the other teams in terms of the development schedule. We started bringing updates a bit late, which means we don’t meet the same deadlines as the other teams. For this reason, I hope from Austin to the end of the season, we’ll see an improvement in performance.” – he pointed out.
Oakes also discussed how difficult it is to achieve the desired results on the track. “It’s not always easy to see the numbers on track that one expects from simulations. That’s why it will be crucial to do everything in the best possible way, especially because the midfield battle is very tight. From one perspective, it’s nice to see this unpredictability from one track to another,” concluded the Alpine team principal, ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
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