All info you need to see before the next GP in Styria begins
Here we are, a second Formula 1 World Championship race just a week after the first, however, it will be celebrated on the same track. The Styrian Grand Prix is named after Styria, Austria’s second-biggest state and the state where the Red Bull Ring is located. After last week’s result, the race has a lot of questions that must be answered on the track on Sunday.
It is obvious that Mercedes looked dominant in the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix from last week and that dominant pace should be prevalent this weekend. Of course, their gearbox troubles should be corrected for this race and it is not a small matter since the German brand has always suffered from reliability issues at Austria for the last three years now.
Hamilton-Bottas dynamic
Lewis Hamilton & Valtteri Bottas
The situation between the Mercedes drivers will be interesting to see, Valtteri Bottas has outqualified Lewis Hamilton in three of the four races they have been teammates at Austria and the six-time champion needs to bounce back from a controversy-filled weekend. The Finnish driver is probably racing at his strongest track, while Hamilton always seems to run into trouble at Spielberg.
Hamilton qualified ninth in 2014 after mistakes on his Q3 runs, then was penalized on the 2015 race for running over the white line at the pitlane exit. The 2016 race was also a practice of a weird race for Hamilton after strategic calls put him behind his teammate Nico Rosberg, with whom he collided in the final lap of the race. Hamilton won in 2016 though, but he would not do it in the following years.
In the last three years, the current champion has had a grid penalty in 2017, retired from reliability trouble in 2018 and suffered from his car’s temperature in 2019, finishing just fifth. Last week, with two penalties on a single day, he had one of his worst races in terms of the poor result he had, especially considered how fast he was.
The Bulls need to use their horns more on track
At Red Bull, their first race of 2020 was also full of controversy, from their seemingly endless protests to Mercedes and Hamilton, to the poor reliability shown during the race on Sunday.
Both Red Bull RB16's on the grid
Of course, in terms of pace, Max Verstappen was looking good after starting the race in second and on a different strategy to the leader Bottas. Verstappen’s retirement was due to electrical issue on his car, while Alex Albon also suffered from car issues, but his race was already over at that point.
Albon’s clash with Hamilton during a battle for second place and an almost certain debut win for the Thai driver had already decided Albon’s fate for the first race of 2020. Hamilton was given a five-second penalty that generated a lot of debate, as the manoeuvre had more than one guilty. Of course, Albon ended up losing more than Hamilton, not just in terms of his first victory, he could have been the Drivers’ Championship leader at this point and probably would've gotten the Fastest Lap, so a full 26 points were in the table for him.
Ferrari’s fortunes
Ferrari is where a big part of the questions will lie for this weekend. As the only of the top three teams (at least in terms of money now) which overachieved, at least the mood is not as dark for the Maranello-based squad as it was after last Saturday’s qualifying.
Charles Leclerc spraying champagne
The Italian team is expected to bring a big aerodynamic upgrade for their car for this race, although they planned to introduce the changes in the third race of 2020. Can they turn their fortunes in just one week? It would certainly be good news for them and for Charles Leclerc, who finished second last week and would certainly be competing for a win if Ferrari can really have a giant improvement on their SF1000.
Also, footage of Sebastian Vettel struggling to maintain his car pointing in the right direction on the long corners of the Red Bull Ring will not be great to see for him and his fans, let us see if the upgrades can help the four-time champion to be close to Leclerc or at least score big points for them. Still, the controversy of his Ferrari exit continues to ring harder than his on-track participation, hopefully for him, that will change.
Is the ‘midfield’ disappearing? Yes, please
The midfield —a word we should start forgetting about, hopefully— was hot last week and McLaren definitely took advantage where Racing Point could not. After Lando Norris epically achieved his first World Championship podium and Carlos Sainz was fifth, the Woking-based team is now second in the World Constructors’ Championship behind Mercedes. Actually, McLaren has scored two third places in the last three Formula 1 weekends, a streak they did not have since 2012.
Lando Norris, McLaren, celebrates after taking a podium finish
Of course, McLaren stumbled into the podium, but someone had to take advantage of the top teams (Mercedes and Red Bull) issues last week and only McLaren did. Anyway, the podium is not representative of McLaren’s true pace, but they were still achieving solid results without the heavy influence of the Safety Cars we saw last week. Their progress during 2019 and 2020 simply cannot be denied.
For Racing Point, there was a definitive sense of a missed opportunity, especially for Sergio Pérez, who was close to a podium finish and ahead of Norris before being penalized for speeding in the pitlane, a decision that was taken a little bit too late by the stewards.
Renault scored points with Esteban Ocon, but the ghost of reliability failure hit them again when Daniel Ricciardo’s car only lasted 17 laps on Sunday. Anyway, the team knows how to change the narrative and at least for a couple of hours, the talk about them will not be about their issues, but their signing of the only champion in their history, two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who will be racing with them again (third time) from 2021 onwards.
Reliability should continue to be a big concern for every team on the grid. After only eleven cars made it to the finish line on Sunday, first finishing will remain more important than finishing first than ever, especially for those at the top who lost a good amount of point to their rivals last week. Yes, Hamilton and Verstappen cannot afford to lose any big points to their main rivals, especially considering an uncertain calendar after the first eight races.
2020 Styrian GP Facts & Figures
For starters, the Styrian Grand Prix will be celebrated for the first time on the World Championship calendar. For the first time in F1 history, the same country will hold two races in a row at the same track and with the same layout.
For the first time since 1995, the same country will host two Formula 1 races in a row —Japan held the Pacific Grand Prix and the Japanese Grand Prix consecutively, both won by Michael Schumacher—.
Japan was not the last country to host consecutive races though, Australia did it by hosting the last race of 1995 —at Adelaide— and the first of 1996 —at Melbourne—. In terms of the last country to host more than one Formula 1 race in the calendar —whether consecutively or not—, Spain was the last to do so in 2012 with the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona and the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
Valtteri Bottas wins the 2020 Austrian GP for Mercedes
Bottas became the second active driver to win more than once at Austria, alongside Verstappen. In fact, the two drivers have shared the last four victories at the Red Bull Ring and both will be looking to tie Alain Prost´s tally of wins at the track with three, which is the all-time high at the venue.
For Mercedes, it was important to stop Red Bull´s run at the track. Since 2014, the German team won five races —Nico Rosberg in 2014 and 2015, Hamilton in 2016 and Bottas in 2017 and this year—.
Ferrari, the team which won the first Formula 1 World Championship race at Austria in 1964 and the first at the ancient Österreichring in 1970, has won only three of the last 31 races at the track and just three of the 14 races held since the track was shortened at the end of the 1990s.
Red Bull Ring Track info
The track, although is a relatively new circuit, has some old-school style to it and is a pure racing venue on its own right. The shortened version of the original Österreichring, now named as the Red Bull Ring, is a beautiful place to see F1 machines fighting and going around the circuit at truly awesome speeds.
As for the hotspots of the track, Turn 1 is often an overtaking place, while Turn 2 and Turn 3 normally see real action due to the long acceleration zones preceding them. With DRS on the main straight and the next two acceleration areas since 2019, last year’s race was amazing and this year’s tandem of two GPs should be thrilling.
The circuit length is 4.318 km and the lap records are held by Valtteri Bottas (outright record: 1:02.939 seconds from last week) and Kimi Raikkonen (Fastest Lap during the race: 1:06.957).
2020 Styrian Grand Prix - Tyres
The tyres for this week´s race will be the same as last week, the C2 (white-colored hard tyre), the C3 (yellow-colored medium tyre) and the C4 (red-colored softest tyre).
The compounds were a key factor in producing a mixed-race last week, as the differences in performance between the tyres resulted in great chances for those who pitted behind the different Safety Car periods and hampered the chances of those who did not.
A quiet race should mean most runners will be on a one-stop strategy, though if those in the front can find a way to add another stop and avoid heavy traffic, might pull the trigger and go for the medium or soft tyre in the latter part of the race.
2020 Styrian Grand Prix Weather Forecast
The weather forecast for Austria has been quite lineal in the last years, with every race since 2014 held under dry and hot conditions.
2020 Styrian Grand Prix Weather Forecast
Friday, July 10th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Isolated thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 30°C
Chance of rain: 58%
Saturday, July 11th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Storms
Max. temperature: 19°C
Chance of rain: 65%
Sunday, July 12th - Race
Conditions: Isolated thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 51%
Who will be on the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix Podium?
Well, our predicted top two from last week was not exactly precise, but here we are, trying to predict who will be standing on the podium on Sunday (podium at the track).
Podium during the Austrian GP on Sunday 5 July 2020
Of course, the last race was heavily impacted by reliability issues which brought the Safety Car out multiple times and it produced a mixed-up order. This week we might have a similar situation with the same tyres at the same track and with little time to work on the several issues encountered last Sunday.
If last week´s race tells us something or at least the outcome of the race, is that we will see Hamilton and Verstappen going all out on their quest to find a big result to get back on track in terms of points, especially the Dutchman, who had a big chance if his car did not break down during the Grand Prix.
For Bottas, another competitive and race-winning drive would mean he will continue to lead the World Drivers’ Championship after two of the eight confirmed races and that he would have an advantage of at least a 20-point gap over Hamilton. If Mercedes will dominate this season on pace as they did in the first race, Bottas will need to take advantage of every track in which he can perform at Hamilton´s level.
Ferrari’s upgrades will be a key part of the weekend. If the red cars go up the order, that would mean a little more spice will be added to the fight at the top and that teams like McLaren and Racing Point will have their hands full. If Ferrari keeps competing for entering the Q3, then McLaren and Racing Point might find themselves fighting for another podium, if the circumstances are right for them.
So, here it is, the prediction for this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Valtteri Bottas.
The race starts on Sunday, 12th of July 2020 at 15:10 local time.
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