(Motorsport-Total.com) – The dry spell continues. Even at the Formula 1 Canada weekend, Audi again did not score any World Championship points. The last points by Gabriel Bortoleto at the season opener in Melbourne (March 8) are now two and a half months ago. Since then, there have been four consecutive zero scores.
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Particularly bitter: In Montreal, the chance for points was definitely there because several favorites stumbled. George Russell retired with an engine failure, world champion Lando Norris also did not see the checkered flag, and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri missed out on points after a crash with Alexander Albon.
However, Audi gave up its actually good hand right at the start on Sunday. “Overall, the race was strongly influenced by the weather conditions and tire decisions at the beginning,” explains race director Allan McNish.
Audi was among the teams that chose intermediates over slicks at the start – which in hindsight was a mistake. “It was a close decision between the different compounds,” emphasizes McNish and admits that “due to the delayed start, it ultimately was not the ideal strategy.”
“From that point on, it was clear that it would be difficult to regain the position,” says the race director. Because after Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto started the race from P11 and P13, they were only in P17 and P19 after the necessary switch to slicks.
Hülkenberg defends tire choice
“Given what we knew at the time, it was a risk worth taking,” Hülkenberg defends the strategy, “but ultimately the early phase did not really go in our favor, and that put us behind quite early.”
At the same time, the German admits: “Even after that, we lacked the necessary pace to recover as we had hoped. The other teams around us were able to progress faster, so there are definitely things we need to understand and improve in this regard.”
For example, Williams driver Carlos Sainz also started on intermediates. The Spaniard was exactly between the two Audi drivers after his switch to slicks but managed to finish ninth and score points, unlike Hülkenberg and Bortoleto.
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Audi’s comeback was also made more difficult by self-inflicted penalties. Hülkenberg received a five-second penalty for being too fast in the pit lane, and Bortoleto later also received five penalty seconds for being too slow behind the VSC.
Even without the two time penalties, it ultimately would not have been enough for a top-10 result. At the finish, both Audi drivers were two laps behind the leaders. “It is of course somewhat disappointing,” admits Bortoleto.
Bortoleto: Points would have been possible
“With a smooth weekend and an uncomplicated race, I think we could have scored points,” says the Brazilian, who might well be right with this assessment. “But that’s how it sometimes is in motorsport,” he shrugs.
The result is especially painful with regard to the World Championship, because Alpine, Racing Bulls, Haas, and Williams all scored points – all direct competitors who are ahead of Audi in the constructors’ championship – and are now slowly pulling away.
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While Audi remains ninth in the World Championship with the two points from Bortoleto in Melbourne, even crisis team Williams now has seven points on the board. Haas (19 points), Racing Bulls (21), and especially Alpine (35) seem to have already pulled away after five races.
“We leave Montreal with the feeling that we have taken a step forward compared to Miami,” McNish emphasizes. However, sooner or later this must also be reflected again in the results list.
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Otherwise, the World Championship train in the midfield threatens to leave without Audi for good.