Hauger says Red Bull junior status doesn’t add pressure at the team’s home event in Spielberg

Sitting six points clear at the top of the Championship ahead of his first experience of a capacity crowd on the Road to F1, at Red Bull’s home event in Spielberg no less, Dennis Hauger could quite understandably be feeling the pressure to perform, but the Red Bull junior said: “I don’t see it that way.”

And while many might opt for a change of approach in an attempt to preserve their lead, with Victor Martins and Jack Doohan not far behind him in second and third, Hauger feels his success so far is indicates otherwise.

“What it means is that I have to keep the same approach,” said Hauger. “It’s a long season and you have to keep focused on the things you can control – like where you are and whether you’re performing at your best. We want to be at the top of the championship, so I have to keep consistent.

“In that sense, Round 2 was alright, but it could have been a better weekend. I was actually feeling quite sick and I struggled with this in Race 1. Overall, I think that we brought home some good points with two second places, but we would have liked to win. You can’t have them all and we’re still at the top of the championship, which is the main thing.”

Although Hauger will be returning to a track that he knows well from pre-season testing, as well as two rounds in 2020, the conditions will be quite different. Not least the addition of more than 90,000 spectators. But once again, the Norwegian was adamant that nothing he does should change.

“I haven't raced with a full crowd since F4, so going into an F1 weekend with a full crowd will be completely different,” he said. “The main focus won’t change but it will be really cool to see the atmosphere and to have everyone around.

“In testing, we were quite competitive here and we tested a lot of different things, so now we want to put it all together for the race weekend. In terms of Qualifying, it looks like an easy track because there are only 10 corners, but it is actually really hard to put everything together and match up all three sectors.”

With Jüri Vips and Liam Lawson winning for the Red Bull Junior Team in the last two seasons at the Red Bull Ring, the Norwegian was asked if this would have any effect on his weekend.

“I don’t see it that way and I won’t approach it any different,” he smiled. “I would love to get a win here of course and that's the goal, but I will be focused on keeping it consistent.”