Max Verstappen's Orange Army will descend on the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg, Austria looking for their hero to continue his march to a third consecutive Formula One title. It will be up to the chasing pack of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and the rest to turn those orange faces red, but Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez will benefit from running on a track that is perfectly suited for everything their cars do very well, which should not be a surprise as it is the team's home track.
There is a bit of frustration in Aston Martin's garage with the Austrian GP being a Sprint Shootout race, which means there will be less practice time for them to discover the extent of the upgrades they brought to Montreal. However, there is optimism that the Red Bull Ring is a track well-suited for those upgrades, as Fernando Alonso told formula1.com.
"I think the Sprint weekend will not be ideal for us," Alonso said. "We still have more time, maybe, of free practice with our new upgraded car. We still need to understand and optimize the package a little bit. And in Austria, obviously with the Sprint, we will have only FP1 to do that. But yeah, it is what it is. The circuit will be good and maybe better for the package as well, let's say."
Reading between the lines and parsing Alonso's comment gives an impression that Aston believes they have closed the overall speed difference between their cars and the Red Bulls, particularly under DRS conditions where the Bulls stampede away from any and all comers.
Alonso said that he expects a better showing from Ferrari as well, and sure enough Carlos Sainz Jr. confirmed the Scuderia are bringing upgrades that should not only help them find speed but also solve the high tire degradation they show at tracks with high-speed corners.
"The team back in Maranello have done an incredible effort to bring them forward to this race," Sainz told formula1.com. "I cannot thank enough the people back in Maranello with the extra hours that everyone has put in to make these parts arrive."
Sainz was also realistic, and stated while he does "hope that this upgrade is opening a bit of a new window of development" for the car, he thinks "it would be a bit optimistic to think that suddenly we're going to be level par with Red Bull with how competitive they are."
For Hamilton's part, he told formula1.com that he isn't frustrated by Red Bull's dominance because it's just how things are at the moment.
"It's what you're faced with," the seven-time champion said. "There's nothing I can do about their amazing performance. It's likely that they will win every race, moving forwards, this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more performance on the cars, or their car doesn't finish."
How to watch the F1 Grand Prix of Austria
- Date: Sunday, July 2
- Location: 2.683 mile (4.318 kilometer), 10-turn Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria
- Time: 8:55 a.m. ET
- TV: ESPN, ESPN+
- Stream: fuboTV (try free)
What to watch for
The high-speed Ring features two DRS zones, long straights and climbs up to 12% grade and drops down to 9.3%, and that all adds up to a circuit that is hard on the brakes and gives the tires no time to rest. It is a relatively short circuit, meaning there is action in front of the fans almost all the time, and is considered to be one of the fastest tracks on the Formula One calendar. But for all that speed and hard braking, the Red Bull Ring is considered to be a track that is not too abrasive on tires. So Pirelli will be bringing similar compounds to what were used at Montreal: the C3 hard compound whites, the C4 medium yellows and the C5 soft compound reds. The race is another on the calendar that features the Sprint format, so teams will have to use the new C4 yellows for both Q1 and Q2 with the C5 reds only seeing action in the Q3.
Keeping the tires cool will prove to be a test -- and may be the difference maker. Drivers are around the 10-turn circuit so quickly that there is little respite for the rubber. Mediums and hards will be the compounds mostly in use, unless a team goes off script and schedules a late pitstop to slip on reds for a mad dash with 10 laps to go. But that's a situation for a team looking to grab a point for the race's fastest lap. As for stops, the winning formula has been two in the past, but if the tires don't show a great deal of degradation then watch for someone to gamble on a one-stopper.
