Ferrari targeting McLaren’s record for highest number of wins in Austria. Ferrari has won the Austrian GP five times.

The track has risen from the ashes of the old Osterreichring, but drastically shortened and modified. The steep climb to the first corner is not as long as it used to be. Then, after it peels off to the right comes a straight that joins the old track with an abrupt hairpin with a steep climb. Other major changes were made to the two left handers which lead to the Texaco Schikane. The final corner, a double apex, is now a dogleg, to allow for a decent run-off area on the outside. It’s a very short track, just 4.318 kilometres in length and requires plenty of power and traction.

Scuderia Ferrari has won five times in Austria: Lorenzo Bandini won on the L-shaped Zeltweg circuit in 1964, Jacky Ickx did it at the old Osterreichring, while the first to win on the new track was Eddie Irvine in 1999. Michael Schumacher was victorious in 2002 and 2003. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel will now be looking for a victory at the 2020 event, which would lead to Ferrari matching McLaren’s current six wins.

FERRARI STATS SINCE 1964
Race wins: 5
Pole positions: 8
Fastest laps: 25

HALL OF FAME

Circuit Stats

LOCATION: Spielberg
FIRST GP: 1970
CIRCUIT LENGTH: 4.318 km
RACE DISTANCE: 306.452 km
LAPS: 71
LAP RECORD: 1:06.957
Kimi Räikkönen (2018)

Stats from the 2019 Austrian GP:

Charles Leclerc lost victory having led the most laps in a race for the second time last season after suffering mechanical woes in Bahrain. The win would have secured Charles the honour of a lights-to-flag victory in all three FIA categories in Spielberg, having achieved the feat in GP3 and F2. But second place was still Charles’ best F1 result at that moment.

Sebastian Vettel was hindered with a P9 grid slot, but recovered to snatch fourth from Lewis Hamilton in the race’s closing stages. The German has traditionally struggled on this track, having never won here and led just five laps from the races he has started in Spielberg.

Despite a string of accidents on Friday, everyone stayed out of trouble in the race. Austria was only the ninth Grand Prix in history to be completed without a single retirement, and the fifth in F1’s hybrid era.