Fresh from the New York premiere of F1: The Movie, Pierre and Franco arrived in Spielberg and swapped their tuxedos for pink race suits.

The special-edition pink overalls were in deference to BWT, with the Austrian Grand Prix being our Title Partner’s home race. Before arriving at the circuit, Franco visited BWT’s global headquarters in Mondsee to learn about the work the company undertakes on a daily basis.

Pierre’s first duty on arrival at the track for Media Day was an appearance at the official FIA Drivers’ Press Conference, where he spoke about the previous race in Canada, how compact the grid is in terms of lap time, and his reaction to Brad Pitt’s comment about his acting performance in the F1 film…

“Yeah - about Brad Pitt’s comment, I must say it clearly made my mom pretty happy,” joked Pierre. “She was very pleased to be the first one in the family group chat to send it to all the family!”

Getting down to business

At just 4.3km, the Red Bull Ring is the fifth shortest circuit of the year with the quickest lap times. With only ten corners, getting into a rhythm early is key. Pierre took to the track on Friday morning in FP1 and began the session practising push laps on the medium compound tyre, then experimenting with two cool down laps before going again.

After trying different engine modes and giving feedback on balance and rotation, Pierre recorded the fourth-quickest time on his 12th lap, which stood as the fifth-fastest overall at the end of the session. In the afternoon, Pierre noticed the car was particularly tricky at Turn 1 and Turn 6 and came on the radio to query whether something was broken - which was confirmed as a damaged floor.

Franco spent time on the hard tyre, before runs on both the soft and medium compounds and reported feeling more at ease when the car was on high fuel loads compared to his qualifying simulation laps.

After a trip to the fan forum on Saturday morning, and a visit from Argentine songwriter and DJ Bizarrap, Pierre delivered a strong performance in qualifying to reach Q3. Unfortunately, a spin on his final lap coming out of the last corner placed him tenth on the grid for the race. Franco also progressed from Q1 but made a small mistake exiting Turn 3, which cost him a tenth and a half, so he lined up in P14.

Turning up the heat

Race day in Spielberg was scorchingly hot, with track temperatures in excess of 50°C. After the initial start was aborted, Pierre made a strong getaway and benefited from the incident at Turn 3 on the opening lap to gain four places. But starting on the soft tyre meant his pace faded compared to those on the more durable medium compound. Pierre stopped on lap 12 for new hards and again on lap 38 for a fresh set of mediums, ultimately finishing just outside the top ten in P13.

In the number 43 car, Franco also started the race on softs and ran a reverse strategy to Pierre, stopping on lap 13 for mediums and lap 39 for hards, coming home 15th. Like Pierre, he struggled with tyre degradation in the hot conditions and suffered a spin at Turn 4 after being hit by Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull. The Japanese driver later came to apologise to Franco after the race.

Despite the frustration of leaving Spielberg with no points, it’s a super-quick turnaround as we head back to the UK for our eagerly anticipated home race at Silverstone this weekend.