Austrian Grand Prix

Red Bull Ring

Racing Fans

The first leg of the European Tripleheader last week in Spain was a tactically interesting race. Verstappen won, but needed a little help from a George Russell bottleneck to hold off Lando Norris.

This week we’re at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. This is one of the shorter tracks of the year, though there are 4 main straights and 3 DRS zones which allow for good overtaking. Despite being a short track, it’s surprisingly challenging: there is considerable elevation change and many of the turns are off-camber, where they slope away from the turn direction. Off-camber is the opposite of a banked turn, which slopes into the turn direction; while banked turns allow for more speed by sticking the car more firmly to the track, an off-camber turn means drivers must be very careful as the car will functionally un-weight and reduce grip.

Historically, Verstappen has driven very well at the Red Bull Ring, winning 4 of the last 6 races there. By the time the race goes off tomorrow, that will be 5, as he won the sprint race this morning ahead of both McLaren’s. McLaren have brought some upgrades this week and are looking rapid, but Verstappen should feel very comfortable going into the race tomorrow.

Verstappen was dominant in qualifying this morning. He was 4-tenths ahead of Norris in second place, and the gap between Verstappen and Norris in second is the same gap between Norris and Perez in 8^th.

Pit stops are important here as a two-stop race is expected. Look for drivers like Russell (currently starting 3^rd) and Sainz (4^th) to try an undercut, where they pit earlier than those ahead of them. The undercut tends to work well in Austria where there are rarely issues getting the tyres up to the proper temperature.

W2W4: Drivers

Perez was again soundly outqualified by his teammate, but the Red Bull looks great in the race simulations. He’s starting 8^th and should be able to overtake the Ferrari’s in front of him. I will admit to initially being surprised that Red Bull have re-signed his contract given his relatively poor performance, but he doesn’t rock the boat in Milton Keynes and brings a considerable amount of sponsorship money that helps the team. He’ll be hoping for a good race at the Red Bull home track in front of his and the Red Bull sponsors.

W2W4: On the Track

Track limits have always been a challenge to enforce in Austria. The drivers will often run wide in some turns, where the slight loss of time gives them a better line into the next set of turns and results in a faster lap. Last year, there were 83 track limits violations in the Austrian GP, particularly at turns 9 and 10. But if a driver goes ALL the way off the track, they are no longer within the racing boundaries. In qualifying, lap times are deleted for going off-track, while in a race the drivers will get warnings before being given a series of time penalties and ultimately disqualification. The Red Bull Ring has changed the runoff areas this week to be more penal for the drivers: there is now a gravel trap sitting precisely one F1 car’s width from the track limit. If a driver goes entirely off-track on the problematic turns, they will end up in the gravel where they are more likely to spin or end up in a runoff area. So far this weekend, the new gravel area has worked well, but the real test will be in the race tomorrow when the drivers are on their limits.

W2W4: Off the Track

On April 1, Liberty Media released a statement that they will acquire MotoGP parent company Dorna. While the prospect of a super-weekend where both F1 and MotoGP race is logistically complex (different sponsors, different camera angles, sometimes different race configurations) and both F1 and MotoGP sell out many of their circuits, flexible promoters and dual track setups might make this more likely. Indeed, MotoGP sporting director mentioned that a dual weekend is not in the immediate plans, but something that has been discussed. The new gravel traps in Austria would be a tough sell for MotoGP, which prefers runoff areas to gravel traps which often preclude restarts. One venue that is a potential option for a mega-weekend is Silverstone. It will be interesting to see if this comes up again in the next week before the British Grand Prix.

The Austrian GP usually delivers great racing and will start at 9am Eastern tomorrow morning. We’ll be back next week at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix.

Reed