Austrian GP Preview

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This weekend the Styrian hills will be host to hundreds of thousands of fans converging upon the Red Bull Ring.  The permanent Red Bull Energy Station is sure to bring high drama and even more racing, as this is the season's second to feature sprint qualifying.

Though the action of Silverstone's closing laps will indeed be a hard act to follow, the Austrian GP is sure to deliver.  An ever resurgent Mercedes and a Ferrari under pressure to put an entire weekend together will surely spice up the championship battle. Red Bull are hometown favorites, though they seem to be the favorite every weekend.  

The Red Bull Ring is a deceptive and interesting track.  It is a short circuit, with lap times expected to be just over one minute in duration.  Half of that time is spent flying down three long straights with DRS zones, which will favor low drag setups, while the remainder is a rollercoaster of jarring turns and decreasing elevation.  The latter section will favor high downforce setups.

Teams will be challenged with identifying a setup that will work across this dichotomy.  Doing so will be even more difficult due to the addition of the sprint qualifying.  Teams will have only FP1 tomorrow morning to prepare the cars for the knockout qualifying session later that same day.  Qualifying will dictate the grid for the sprint qualifier.  

Saturday morning, teams will have FP2 to dial in their setups and make the necessary changes from typical qualifying the day before and the roughly third distance race of sprint qualifying.  In the afternoon, the sprint qualifier will allow poor performers from the day before to battle their way through the field with the hope of improving their place on the grid for the GP.  It is a high stakes and very exciting prospect.

Given the tricky nature of the track and the resultant setup challenges, this weekend stands to provide lots of excellent racing with plenty of opportunities for surprises.  The midfield battle could very well heat up with Alpine nipping at the heels of McLaren.  Alfa will do well to get both cars in the points, but are hungry to deliver on the promise they've shown throughout the season. Alpha Tauri too could pose a threat to those ahead.  The RB junior team will be eager to put their recent failings behind them.

Haas, Williams, and Aston will be hoping to capitalize on the setup challenges posed and leapfrog their way closer to the midfield. The two British firms will be keen to further develop their recent upgrades and Haas will be energized from last week's double points finish. 

There will be plenty to look forward to, can't wait to tell you all about it.

A.T.

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