Audi target breakthrough with new upgrades for Austria after recent strong pace goes unrewarded

The team believes recent races have provided encouraging evidence that development work on the R26 is moving in the right direction, with further updates set to be introduced in Spielberg as it seeks to strengthen its position in a tightly contested midfield battle.

Reserve driver Paul Aron will make his second planned Free Practice 1 appearance of the season on Friday, taking over Gabriel Bortoleto's car for the opening session.

Audi Racing Director Allan McNish said the team's recent performances had offered reasons for optimism despite the lack of results: "We have seen encouraging signs in terms of performance and understanding the car in Monaco and Barcelona, even though we were not able to bring home the results our pace warranted.

"It is important we keep our focus and continue to work hard and develop our car in a highly competitive field. What the team is doing across all areas is translating more consistently on track.

"This momentum is something we want to keep building on as we enter another set of back-to-back races, starting with Spielberg this weekend. Our goal is to keep moving forward, aiming to maximise everything we can extract on track," McNish said.

Nico Hulkenberg arrives in Austria frustrated by a missed opportunity in Barcelona: "The result in Barcelona was disappointing because we had the pace, the position and the opportunity to bring home a good result.

The German veteran continued: "Still, the two most recent events have shown that we are making steps in the right direction when it comes to performance. We have the pace to fight for points, and it is a matter of time until we reap the rewards of our work.

"Spielberg is next up, and it's always a great event with a very unique layout and scenery. It's a short track and deceptively easy: you don't have a lot of chances to make up for errors, so qualifying well is important. But what matters most is putting together a clean weekend overall - three solid days without any mistakes," added The Hulk.

In the sister car, Bortoleto also believes Audi have the pace to return to the points: "We get to Austria knowing we should have scored points in recent events and didn't do so: while that is obviously frustrating, we are also conscious of the performance we can deliver, and therefore we are looking forward to another chance to get in the top ten," the Brazilian said.

Bortoleto scored his first Formula 1 points at Spielberg last season and hopes to repeat that success: "I have some very good memories from last year's race in Spielberg: I scored my first points in Formula One here and it was a great day for the team, with Nico in the points too.

"Obviously, that is something we would love to do again this year: I am confident in the work the team is doing and I am looking forward to the battles we are going to have this weekend," added the Brazilian.

Audi arrive in Austria looking to capitalise on recent gains in performance and finally convert their midfield pace into a points-paying result before the championship heads straight to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix.