Audi targets fourth straight points finish at Zandvoort

Audi heads to Formula 1’s return at Zandvoort chasing a fourth consecutive points finish, with Allan McNish saying the team’s rise before the summer break was built on genuine performance gains that have put it directly into the fight with Racing Bulls.

Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto both reached the points in the three races before the four-week shutdown, a run that changed the picture for Audi after a first half marked by too many missed opportunities. McNish, Audi’s race director, said the breakthrough since Silverstone came from better understanding how to extract performance from the car, growing confidence among both drivers and team, and then taking advantage of situations when they appeared.

“What is pretty clear is that we are fighting directly against Racing Bulls,” McNish told Motorsport-Total.com. “I think we have very similar pace. It just depends on whether they are a little bit ahead or we are a little bit ahead. I think they have a small advantage in qualifying. In the race, we have an advantage, but we are behind them.”

Audi traces part of that improvement to the upgrade it introduced in Austria. McNish said it helped especially in slow corners, an area where the car had been weaker, and that the team then improved drivability and kept refining the package through setup work. He said that process has been about understanding what suits the car and what the drivers want, with further gains coming from that learning.

Bortoleto’s recent results underlined that progress. The Brazilian finished eighth at both Silverstone and Spa and said the team has unlocked more of the car’s potential with each race. “We have learned more about the car with every race and released more and more of its potential, and it is important that we take that into the second half of the season,” he said.

That momentum does not make Zandvoort straightforward. McNish warned that the summer break may have altered the competitive order and said the fight for points remains tight, even if Audi is encouraged by the direction it had found before the pause. He said the team is confident it can be in the mix at Zandvoort and beyond, but stopped short of assuming another top-10 finish.

Hülkenberg struck a similar note before the Dutch Grand Prix, saying the aim is to carry on from Budapest and deliver another strong weekend. With a sprint also on the schedule at Zandvoort, Audi’s test after the break is whether its midseason gains are strong enough to keep it in that increasingly close midfield points battle.