The French Grand Prix did not even have time to go to the archive as the Formula 1 paddock heads straight to Austria. A track where we will stay for two consecutive weekends. The first of the two will take the name of Styrian Grand Prix, in honor of the host region, while the second will return to the more traditional Austrian GP. Just like in 2020, albeit in reverse order. At the moment the weather seems to point to an unpredictable weekend. According to the latest forecasts, there is a good chance of seeing some wet sessions on both race weekends.
Here too, as could be seen at the Paul Ricard circuit, one of the positive factors will be given by seeing the public in the stands. Only partial opening for the first of the two scheduled appointments, while a sort of ‘green light’ should been given for the Austrian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen who tried to promote the sale of tickets through his social networks. For the Dutchman, Spielberg’s appointment, given its proximity to the Netherlands and being located on the Red Bull-owned track, has always been considered a sort of home race. The championship leader will therefore have an extra boost in the next two weeks and should take advantage of the positive circumstances.
Styria Gp preview 2021: Aerodynamics and DRS
We can define the Red Bull Ring as a medium load track. Being composed of three straights and medium-high speed corners, it will be crucial for the technicians to obtain an optimal aero-mechanical balance. Such as to allow the car to enjoy good stability, to be achieved through a correct vertical thrust which will be useful in the three very hard braking sections to be made at the end of the straights and in the slow section of the second / third sector. All this without compromising too much speed on the straight. Enjoying an efficient car body will certainly be a major advantage. Here too the wind could play an important role: the gusts coming from the Styrian Alps could affect the correct aerodynamic functioning of the cars.
Thanks to its wide track and the use of the movable wing guaranteed on all three straight sections, overtaking in Spielberg, fortunately, has never lacked. The speed delta generated by the use of the DRS system on the straight that leads to the braking of Turn 03 is around a value of 16 km / h, of 13 Km / h in the straight that leads to Turn 04, while a little higher at 10 km / h on the straight of the finish line, the shortest of the three.
Styria Gp preview 2021: Power Unit
The three straights, interspersed with as many challenging braking, will put the endothermic engine under the hood of the F1 cars to the whip. With 77% of the lap to go full-gas, combined with the lower air density given by the altitude at which the Red Bull Ring is located, they could generate excessive stress on the power unit sector. In Styria, therefore, one could return to see some coffins with larger openings for the dissipation of heat. Although they will worsen the efficiency of the car body, they will be essential if you want to avoid excessive overheating in one of the most crucial areas of the car. Obviously, if it really does come to rain, all these aspects will also be suitably mitigated by the atmospheric conditions, perhaps adverse for the drivers, but beneficial, in this respect for the engine.
The power-to-weight ratio makes us understand how important the contribution of the power unit really is on this track: 10Cv equals a value of 0 “15 per lap. Obviously, the altitude will also directly affect its performance. However, the problem can be remedied by increasing the turbo pressure. As regards energy recovery, this will be entrusted almost exclusively to MGU-H. On the other hand, on such a fast track, it couldn’t be otherwise. 3,149 Kj is the value of energy regenerated by the enthalpy of the exhaust gases, while only 621 Kj are obtained by the MGU-K through braking (it will be possible to understand the reasons for this by reading the section reserved for Brembo). At each lap, the hybrid will be able to provide an overall contribution of 3,770 kj, which in chronometric terms will result in a reduction in lap time of approximately 2.4 seconds with an increase in top speed of 12 K / h. .
Styria Gp preview 2021: Fuel and transmission
It will take 100kg of fuel to complete the 306,452km spread over the 71 laps. A fairly high consumption even if not really critical if we think that 10 kg correspond to about 0.15 seconds per lap. Wide carriageway accompanied by vast escape routes makes entry by any Safety Car statistically unlikely, although still possible. So in the event that someone decides to load less fuel than necessary to lighten the overall weight of the car, they may be forced to try their hand at the ‘lift and coast’ technique in order not to run out of fuel. The transmission, with its 2800 changes (an average of 40 per lap), will not be very busy in the race, but it could receive important stresses from a thermal point of view. Also in this case, the considerations made previously for the PU apply.
Styria Gp preview 2021: Braking system
According to Brembo technicians, the Red Bull Ring is a medium difficulty circuit for the brakes. On a scale of values from 1 to 5 it deserves a difficulty index of 3 going to equal tracks like Budapest and Zandvoort (track on which F1 will return to racing from 3 to 5 September 2021 after 36 years of absence). The Austrian track is the only one in the World Championship in which a lap lasts less than 64 seconds, although last year, thanks to the rain, pole was won with a time of over 79 seconds at the Styrian GP. Something that hasn’t been seen since 1998.
The drivers will not use the brakes on only three occasions: Turns-02-05 and 08. On average, the braking system will be active for just over 10 seconds per lap. Only in Imola is there a lower value, even though there are eight braking points compared to seven in the Red Bull Ring. The substantial difference is to be found in the braking of Turn 03 and 04, which take over two and a half seconds, while on the Italian track even the most demanding braking takes no more than 1.9 seconds. Throughout the course of the race, the drivers will keep their foot resting on the brake pedal for only 11’56 ”, that is, approximately 16% of the total time.
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