The first European double-header continues as BWT Alpine Formula One Team heads to Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Round 7 of the FIA Formula One World Championship.

Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto return to Barcelona for the first time since the pre-season Shakedown and A526 livery launch aboard the MSC Cruises World Europa in January. The race provides the first opportunity for teams to return to a circuit with previous experience of this year's generation of cars and to evaluate the rate of development made compared to the car's first ever on-track runs. The flowing, technical circuit, based outside the city in the Montmeló hills, is known as the perfect test of a modern Formula One car with its mixture of slow, medium and high-speed corners. For success, teams need a well-balanced car to take on some of the technical sections without compromising straight-line speed for the main straight and the run between Turns 9-10.

Pierre Gasly: "I left Monaco with a lot of difficult emotions after what happened in the race. It is a difficult one to take and certainly something I will reflect on in the future as one of those 'what could have been' moments in my career. I am really proud of how we performed in Monaco. It was not an easy weekend where we had to really work hard to make the most of the package and that resulted in reaching Q3 and beating some of our close rivals who were very competitive in Monaco. Then we had a really hard fought race with overtakes on a McLaren and a Red Bull to make up some places and that put ourselves in a great position for a big reward. As we know, that reward never came and I know the team is fighting hard behind the scenes for the Right of Review. I've had a relaxed couple of days since and my mind right now is very much focused on Barcelona. It's a track we all know well and a place where we've already turned many laps in this year's cars following the tests in January. I hope we can keep extracting performance from the car and put ourselves up there again this weekend to continue our points-scoring run."

Franco Colapinto: "The race in Monaco was challenging for us and it was, in general, a difficult weekend for me. We were unable to make progress during the race and were stuck in a train of cars outside the points. There were opportunities this weekend, but we couldn't capitalise and as a team it is important to understand what we could have done better. Now the European season has begun, the races will take place very regularly and we are back again in Barcelona this weekend and are working hard to come back stronger. For the first time this year, we are racing at a track where we have a lot of knowledge with the A526 because of the tests we did back in January. The cars have developed so much since then and we obviously know a lot more about this year's regulations so it will be very interesting to get on track on Friday and see the improvements we've made in a short period of time. All the drivers know this track well and it's a good test of a Formula One package with its range of medium and high-speed corners. I enjoy the circuit and have been on the podium here in many of the championships I've raced so I'll be using those good experiences to help extract the maximum in every session."