Restarting from Austria
Teams will have the C3 compound available for the Austrian Grand Prix, identified as the P Zero White hard, the C4 compound as the P Zero Yellow medium, and the C5 compound as the P Zero Red soft. Like in the previous race in Montreal, the three softest compounds in the range will be used.
The Spielberg weekend will be the second on the calendar featuring the F1 Sprint. The qualifying session to determine the starting grid for the Grand Prix will take place on Friday afternoon, following the only free practice session in the morning. Saturday will be dedicated to the Sprint Shootout and the Sprint Race.
In the three short sessions of the Sprint Shootout (lasting 12, 10, and 8 minutes, respectively), teams must mandatory fit new sets of tires and use the Medium compound in Q1 and Q2. The use of the Soft compound is instead scheduled for Q3. The Red Bull Ring has only ten corners and is the circuit on the championship calendar where drivers spend the least amount of time to complete a full lap. The race lap record is held by Carlos Sainz, who completed the 68th lap in 1:05.619 during the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix with his Renault-powered McLaren using the Soft C4 compound.
The driver with the most victories on the current version of the Austrian circuit is Max Verstappen with four wins out of the 18 races held since 1997. The most successful constructor is Mercedes, thanks to their six first-place finishes, achieved by Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton, each with two victories. In the 2022 Grand Prix, most drivers made two pit stops, starting on Medium and finishing with two stints on Hard. Overtaking maneuvers were frequent, especially in the midfield, with five cars competing for positions below the podium. The variation in elevation between different points on the track makes the Red Bull Ring the second circuit on the championship with the greatest difference in altitude after Spa-Francorchamps. There is a variation of over 60 meters between the point closest to sea level, before turn 1, and the highest point, after turn 2.
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Analysis by Mario Isola.
“The Red Bull Ring is a circuit where tyres get no rest. The cars race through the track’s 10 corners in a lap time of just over a minute, and the few straights mean that there is little reprieve for the tyres. The asphalt has a fairly high micro and macro roughness, due to the age of the surface, while grip is high at the start of the lap. Traction and braking are key elements, while particular attention will have to be paid to managing tyre overheating. Drivers who manage not to cool their tyres properly may find it difficult to defend against attacks from rivals, especially in the first and last sectors. An important factor in this will be ambient temperature, with weather conditions traditionally somewhat variable. Last year’s race was largely a two-stopper using the medium and hard compounds, but a one-stopper could also be an option this year if degradation is not too high.” – the Pirelli Motorsport Director said, in the official Pirelli preview of the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
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