Grand Prix 2016 Austrian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

With 6 races in 8 weekends this summer, if ever there was a more appropriate sponsor for the 3rd race through this F1 endurance marathon it's Red Bull. We have arrived wide eyed and with the caffeine jitters back in Speilberg, Austria at The Red Bull Ring.

With around 10,000 miles traveled in the last 21 days the teams will be happy they are back in central Europe and may even be organised enough with there upcoming 'weekend off' into bringing some upgrade tweaks for the back to backs of Austria and Great Britain. Eyes peeled everyone for twiddly bits and go-faster stripes.

The race track is one of the shorter ones on the calendar at just 2.684 miles which gives us a beefy 71 lap race. A meer shadow of it's earlier 3.6mile iteration between 1977-1995, but we moo-ve on (bull joke for you there...sorry)

Last years race saw Lewis take pole in 1.08.455. It didn't help him in the race however as he made a poor get away (yup again) and Nico passed him into the first corner resulting in a follow the leader snooze fest up front for the remainder of the race. Williams have some form here with their front row lock out in 2014 and taking a podium 3rd place in both 2014 and 2015 they are certainly a dark horse to keep an eye on. Seb had a wheel nut problem last year which arguably robbed him of 3rd. Alonso will be hoping he can make it around the first lap without mounting Kimi as he did last year in what could of been a very serious crash. Actually with a DNF in 2014 as well, he will be hoping to simply finish.

So to this years race, Nico will be keen as mustard to build on his win in Baku, building on his earlier form and rebuilding that gap to Lewis. If he does take the win he will make it 3 wins in row at The Red Bull Ring, maintaining his record of being the one and only (F1) winner at this new iteration of the Speilberg track.

It's hard to see past a Mercedes win but the Ferraris have looked much improved since their token free 'reliability (in no way faster) upgrade' to their turbo. Who knows the Red Bull home advantage could finally kick in as well in what has been a poor event for them, finishing just 8th in 2014 and 10th last year. But if I was to have a cheeky each way bet it would be on Williams. I've just got a feeling.

Nico has rebuilt his championship lead to a snifter off a full win haul in points with 24 points clear. Seb is knocking on the back door just through shear consistency just 21 points behind Lewis. It certainly keeps the championship interesting, if Nico had lost the championship lead in Baku I can't help feel it would of been a slippy slope for him.

The CTA massive scored this one a 5.5 out of 10 in 2015 but a healthier 7 out of 10 in 2014.
I think we are well overdue a stonker so fingers crossed Spielberg can deliver.

Kimi & Alonso crash from last year.

TV times.

 

[FB]

The truth behind "that" incident. It was all Hamilton's fault (as usual).

 

[Lewywo4]

Johnny Herbert conducted a very interesting Interview with Toto Wolff. Herbert asked, he definitely seem that he tried to put Lewis off the track, and how do you feel about that? .After reviewing the onboard from Rosberg's car, and Herbert then asked Wolff, " he doesn't seem to turn the wheel when he should have...he doesn't even try to attempt it." Wolff after the review, responded in a muted tone agreed by saying .. yeah!

 

[Bill Boddy]

Rosberg said that he left enough space for Hamilton to stay within the white lines. From that photo he seems to be telling the truth.

 

[F1Brits_90]

I enjoyed Sniff Petrol tweet
My brother once crashed his boss's new Defender into a tree after failing to put on enough lock. He should have claimed 'brake problems'

 

[KekeTheKing]

Looks to me like Mad Max may have gotten away with one at the end of Lap 2. We never did see how he got by Ricciardo and it happened right after they started showing the Replay montage. It took Crofty until lap 4 to mention it on Sky. Here is the view from Seb's Onboard.

Pretty surprising that we never got a replay of this one.

 

[marksawatsky]

That camera angle they had on Vettel is my favorite one so far-you get a sense of speed and what the driver is doing

 

[KekeTheKing]

At the end of this video you get a good view of how Wehrlein fended off Gutierrez for 10th. They fly around a wounded Rosberg and Esteban gets nudged onto the grass. Just a few things happening on the final lap...

 

[Westy]

Well, the last few laps were really intense. I was pulling for Pascal to get 10th and was glad that he did, unfortunately at the expense of Perez.

On the Ham-Ros incident, I too was watching the NBCSN coverage and I thought Matchett was just spouting hyperbole. However, he couldn't have been more correct. He is a true asset to their coverage.

I like the spirited fight that Rosberg put up, he is determined to not let Hamilton bully him like he has done in the past. However, he is just clumsy in his defense. Had the roles been reversed Hamilton would have done the squeezing on the exit rather than the entrance. With Rosberg trying to pinch Hamilton on the entrance he was sacrificing the corner which would have left him exposed to an up and under maneuver from Hamilton.

I don't think Rosberg could keep the position with his brakes in "passive mode". But I'm glad he tried to fight instead of giving in. His execution was terrible but at least he tried.

That being said, I'm glad Hamilton won. The title fight is nice and close again which I how I like it.

Button drove a great race, I thought he was going to drop like a stone instead of Hulkinberg. Pascal was my driver of the race followed by Mad Max.

I'd like a few more races like that this year.

 

[Bill Boddy]

What really made it was that Mercedes were not that far in front of the pack. Hopefully it was not just a one circuit anomaly but the start of the other teams being quick enough to trouble the Mercs.

 

[Kewee]

Bill Boddy ..... Possibly caused by tyre uncertainty. If they had been able to establish likely tyre behaviour during practice and not needed to change strategy mid race with Hamilton, he probably would have built on his lead rather than loosing it and having to regain it for the win. It was all a little messy, I don't think it will be at Silverstone. I don't think anyones going to threaten them just yet.

 

[vintly]

At long last I managed to watch the race. Was at a festy over the weekend then fell asleep trying to watch it on Tuesday. Through lack of sleep not lack of excitement. Anyway, great race, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. Rosberg's a very lucky boy to have finished at all. What a fool. And how brilliant of Hammy to get that run on him off turn 1, on the very last lap. It's almost as exciting as MotoGP!

 

[Bill Boddy]

What shook Mercedes Kewee was Q2 when the Ferraris went out on the "slower" tyres to give themselves an advantage on the race. They tried to trump it by sending the drivers out again but due to the weather there was no chance. What made it worse was that other teams did the same so the Mercs were likely to be stuck in traffic for quite some time. There wasn't really very much difference in speed between the two types of tyre but there was in longevity.

Just for once Ferrari did something different which worked, good on them. Just a shame that they left Vettel out one lap too many.

 

[Kewee]

I agree with what your saying Bill Boddy but my posting was related to the practice sessions rather than qualifying. It's not often the teams start a GP not knowing how long their tyres will last but that was the case in Austria which certainly impacted on Mercedes strategy.