Wehrlein thinks Manor can target Renault now

The German made the most of Manor's most competitive showing of the season at the Red Bull Ring to grab his first F1 point with a 10th place finish, and it could prove crucial in terms of future commercial rights income for the team.

Although being well aware that the warm conditions and new track surface helped Manor gets its tyres into the right operating window, he senses good opportunities for the future judging by the progress made since Australia.

"I think we improved a lot since the beginning of the season," said Wehrlein. "Now the last few races we are fighting every race with Sauber or Renault.

"The first race was very disappointing. We were far off the pace when we came to Bahrain, which was a bit better, but then China was not that good. At the beginning we were still struggling a lot I would say, and we improved a lot.

"I think our progress is big which we are making. At the moment I am happy and I hope we can improve even more for the next races, and hopefully we can even fight with Renault in the championship. That would be great – I will push as hard as I can."

Tyres key

Although Manor had a small update from technical partner Williams in Austria, Wehrlein thinks that the hot weather conditions were key to its strong form there.

"I think most important thing were the tyres, because we could make them work and they were in a really good temperature window where we have never been before," he said. "We were always struggling to get tyre temperature and this time it is a lot better."

When asked if the lessons from the weekend could be used to help the team get more from its tyres in the future, he said: "We know what we can do, but first of all it is really difficult to make a short term thing.

"It would be more a midterm thing to improve. You have to design the things first and then test it in the wind tunnel and on the car if it works. It is not that easy; I wish it would be that easy."

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