Today's press conference with Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso.

Q: Nico, great to see you. And you are enjoying a great run at the moment. Two consecutive P6s. Just how confident are you in this car and what you can do with it going forward?
Nico Hulkenberg: Yeah, it's definitely been good. It's been very positive. Austria was very good. Then we brought the update to Silverstone, which added more performance and was a good step forward. I think so far this season, obviously we're at the halfway point after Silverstone, that we're definitely one of the positive surprises this season, recovering a lot of performance from last year. So it's been good. It's very enjoyable, obviously, racing for points. We've had, I don't know how many point scorings now, but also a few times very close to the top 10. And obviously our ambition and target is to try and keep that up for the rest of the season.

Q: Nico, after the troubles of last year, have you been surprised by the rate of progress that the team has made this year?
NH: I think, yes, we surprised ourselves a little bit already in winter testing in Bahrain and from the get-go we found ourselves in better shape than what we could expect. I think it all goes down to some reshuffling of the technical structures we had within our team and the organisation. And yeah, it's just been good and, like I said, very enjoyable and positive.

Q: So what about here? It's a very different racetrack to Silverstone. Do you think you can be competitive?
NH: I think so. And it goes back to my point from earlier. We've been, you know, around the top 10 and competitive within the midfield and in the race for fifth fastest on many occasions. And I don't see a reason why it should be very different here.

Q: Final one from me. Your team-mate announced this morning that he's not going to be continuing with Haas in 2025. Can we just get a few words from you on Kevin Magnussen? How quick is he? Does he deserve a seat in Formula 1 next year?
NH: Yeah, I enjoyed working with him these two years. It's been definitely enjoyable. And we get on really well. After our little romance here a couple of years ago, it was actually quite the turnaround of a relationship and kind of turned into a friendship. And I think we work well as a team. We're kind of pushing in the same direction most of the time. And yeah, it's been nice and a pleasure. And I wish him well and all the best for his future.

Q: Thank you, Nico. Pierre, let's come to you now. So, Taylor Swift. Are you a Swiftie?
Pierre Gasly: Well, I guess I am now. We are, with Charles here. I must admit, it was an incredible experience. I've never seen and heard such an energy in a stadium. Actually, we didn't even talk with Charles before the concert. And it turned out we ended up in the same place, in the same area, without letting each other know. So it was pretty cool. And yeah, a good night. A good night.

Q: Alright, let's bring it on to Formula 1. Now, after four consecutive points finishes for you, it seems that the team lost a bit of momentum at Silverstone. Do you understand the issues with the car there? Why it didn't perform so well?
PG: Well, I think we didn't even get a real picture of the performance there. Obviously, the qualifying was in mixed conditions. I didn't take part in it, and I didn't even take part in the race. So on paper, from the free practice, I did 15 laps the whole weekend. Yeah, it seemed to be slightly more difficult. We know the track, with all these long straights and the efficiency you need on the power and the aero side, maybe didn't favour our package, but I still think there would have been a chance to do something and it was just a shame not to be able to race.

Q: What do you need from the car to recreate that sweet spot that you both had in Barcelona?
PG: Well, first to take the start and actually race. But then I think the car itself, we know where we are. We haven't really developed over the last few races. So we know how to maximise it. Obviously, others, like Haas for example, are making quite big steps forward and it's so tight in that midfield that it kind of reshuffles the order every time a team brings a new part. So I think we know we've got to try. Not easy to score points until we get new upgrades on the car, which hopefully will put us a bit more in the fight.

Q: Final one from me: team-mate for 2025, who do you want?
PG: I said it already. I mean, you know, I think Alpine, the team has good options on the table. At the end of the day, it's not up to me. I welcome the fastest guy out there. We all know who it is. But then, yeah, I mean, at the moment, we got to wait. But yeah, the team has three good options.

Q: Have you spoken to Carlos?
PG: I did my fair share of the job, but ultimately I believe in the projects we're building with Alpine and I always back the team up. Now it's up to him to make his own decision.

Q: Thank you, Pierre. Alex, let's come to you. Back in the points at Silverstone, after what had been some difficult races for you and the team, just how important was that ninth place?
Alex Albon: It was good. It was good to kind of get another points finish for us. It was one of those races where it all just came together a bit more on a track that also suited us, which has suited us historically. So, yeah, you know, it was nice. Obviously, we're trying to catch up and overtake the guy to my right and at the same time try and create some space to Sauber. So we're doing the right thing and we're going in the right direction. But similar to Pierre, we're not putting things on the car. It's just getting the car in a good place for the one weekend that suited our car.

Q: So a moment of reflection, just the two points finishes for you in the opening half of this season. How do you sum it up?
AA: It's been tricky. I think obviously we wanted more. That's also just a bit of a testament towards the midfield teams doing a great job. I think Haas, especially, kind of came into this year and have been a bit of a surprise and their updates are working and they seem to be continuing forward. The gap to the front has always been shrinking, it's just relatively speaking we've not been as performant as some of the other midfield teams. So it's still a race and it's still very close out there. One upgrade could put you back into the mix to fight for the points but at the moment that's not going to be on our car this weekend and we've got to focus on just maximising everything.

Q: So what are the goals for here in Hungary?
AA: We have low expectations. I don't think it's a circuit that should suit us. Kind of a little bit like Barcelona, hot, a bit more about pure downforce. I think it's a good test for us. We've come up with some new options and new ideas coming from Barcelona and thinking about how we want to address some of our issues. We'll just go out there in FP1, try a few things and see if it works.

Q: Best of luck with that. Thank you. Oscar, let's come to you now. You've spoken about missed opportunities at Silverstone last time out where you finished fourth. Do you think you could have won that race had you not done that extra lap in the rain?
Oscar Piastri: I mean, I think it would have been tough. I think at that point of the race, my options being the second car on track were always slightly unfavourable. I think in certain scenarios, yes, I probably could have won the race, but I think for a lot of people in that race, there are a lot of things they could have done a lot better, and I think a lot of people have a lot of what-ifs in situations like that. So, yes, I think we've analysed that and worked out where we could have gone better. And I think on both sides of the garage we've worked very well together to identify where we went wrong. But, yeah, I think the fact that we were in the hunt for that. I don't think we were... You know, before the rain came, we were not the fastest car on track. We were fourth and fifth. And, you know, through the weather conditions and whatnot we were able to get into a good position and unfortunately we made some errors from there. But I think the opportunities are always very, very tough to come by. And I think we're creating some of our own.

Q: What lessons have been learned from Silverstone?
OP: I mean, a few. Obviously, a few specific to that race in particular. I think a few in general. I think as we're now fighting back at the front, we're competing against teams that have been in this position for an incredibly long time. In some cases, over a decade. It's been a while since, as a team, we've been regularly fighting in those positions. It's not an excuse for us to be able to get it wrong, but we are inexperienced compared to some of our competitors. We're learning a lot as we go along. I think we've had a few races where we've really taken advantage of our opportunities and maybe they haven't been commented on as much, but I think that's part of the game. When you're right at the front, these missed opportunities can be the difference between winning a race or finishing second, which, of course, has a bit more weight than if you're having the difference between a P6 and a P7.

Q: Oscar, Imola was a near miss. You could argue that Austria was a near miss. Silverstone was a near miss. How do you stop frustration creeping in?
OP: I mean, a few ways. I think the fact that we're even having these opportunities in the first place is, you know, we've been having opportunities for the last couple of months now, let's say, but our memory is not that short. And, you know, it was only 12 months ago that we were finishing P3 and P4 and that was an incredible result for us. So I think we still have that. Of course, we can't live off that forever and we need to appreciate that we're in a much different position now. But also the opportunities have always been very different. And some of the circumstances have been in our control and I think we've been very good at analysing that. I think a fair share of the circumstances have been out of our control as a team. So I think you know just focusing on what we need to improve for ourselves and not being caught up on the things that are out of our control, that's a massive part of it.