All info you want to see before next Styrian GP starts

The 2021 Formula 1 World Championship will continue with the eighth race of the calendar, the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, coming up. For the second time in history and for the second straight year, the Red Bull Ring will host two consecutive Grands Prix, and the Styrian Grand Prix will be the first of the pair.

The 2021 French Grand Prix was certainly a fantastic race that gave us a great fight for the win between eventual winner Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. The Red Bull driver had a two-stop strategy that help him catch and pass Hamilton, on struggling tyres, in the penultimate lap.

Now, the Red Bull driver is leading the World Drivers’ Championship by 12 points over the seven-time World Champion. Sergio Pérez finished third at France for Red Bull, and the Austrian team will arrive to its home track with a 37-point advantage over Mercedes in the World Constructors’ Championship.

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Valtteri Bottas comes from a P4 finish at France, but will be driving in arguably his favourite circuit, looking to recover from some tough results.

The race, which could be celebrated under rainy conditions, should be competitive between the top two teams again. Of course, Red Bull has a certain advantage and might dominate given its car’s straight line speed. However, a lot can change setup-wise and a thrilling fight might be coming up.

The battle behind the championship contenders

While McLaren finished fifth with Lando Norris (fourth in the WDC) and sixth with Daniel Ricciardo at Paul Ricard, Ferrari struggled and finished with both drivers (Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz) out of the Top 10. The Woking team now has 16 points over Ferrari in the fight for P3 in the WCC, and the Maranello-based squad needs to strike back as soon as possible. The Red Bull Ring might not be the right place for Ferrari to bounce back, but rain might be a good hope for the Italian team.

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M, battles with Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, ahead of Esteban Ocon, Alpine A521

Behind McLaren and Ferrari, there is a good fight between AlphaTauri (Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda), Aston Martin (Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll) and Alpine (Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon). AlphaTauri is now fifth in the WCC with a five-point gap over Aston Martin and 16 over Alpine. However, Aston Martin was the only squad to finish with both cars in the points at France, though Vettel and Stroll were only ninth and 10th and scored fewer points than its rivals.

Alfa Romeo, with Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, remains eighth in the WCC with two points scored. Williams (George Russell and Nicholas Latifi) and Haas (Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin) are in the back end of the standings, with Williams having a slight advantage after George Russell finished 12th in the previous race.

With possible rain, any team should look at the Styrian Grand Prix as a good opportunity to maybe score a point or two, and that’ll be exciting to watch.

2021 Styrian GP Facts & Figures

The Styrian Grand Prix will be celebrated for the first time on the World Championship calendar. With the Austrian Grand Prix coming up next week, the same country will hold two races in a row at the same track and with the same layout for the third time in F1 history, after Austria and Great Britain did the same in 2020.

View of the paddock from turn 11

The race was positioned in the 2021 calendar to replace the Turkish Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton won the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix after starting from Pole Position with a brilliant Pole lap in rainy conditions. That victory was Mercedes’ sixth at Austria, as Hamilton himself had won the Austrian Grand Prix in 2016. Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes in 2014 and 2015, while Valtteri Bottas won in the 2017 edition of the Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, on his side, started the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix in second place for Red Bull and finished third behind the two Mercedes.

Red Bull Ring 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, this year’s tandem of two GPs should be thrilling, though DRS might not make an appearance if rain arrives.

Alain Prost, with three Grand Prix wins, leads the drivers’ table at Austria. Jo Siffert also won three times at Austria, but two of those came in non-championship races. Among active drivers, Verstappen and Hamilton have taken two wins each at Austria, with Verstappen’s both coming under the Austrian GP name, and Hamilton taking an Austrian and one Styrian Grand Prix.

McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have each taken six wins at Austria, though one of Ferrari’s wins was in a non-championship race.

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 32 races at the track and just three of the 14 races held since the track was shortened at the end of the 1990s.

The circuit length is 4.318 km and the lap records are held by Valtteri Bottas (outright record: 1:02.939 seconds from the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix qualifying) and Carlos Sainz (Fastest Lap during the 2020 Styrian race: 1:05.619).

2021 Styrian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained its choice with a press release: “For the second and third instalments in Austria of the year’s first triple-header, Pirelli has made two separate tyre nominations on the same track (as was also the case last year at Silverstone). For the first race at the Red Bull Ring, known as the Steiermark Grand Prix, C2 will be the P Zero White hard, C3 will be the P Zero Yellow medium, and C4 will be the P Zero Red soft. At the Austrian Grand Prix, held just one weekend later on an identical track, P Zero White hard will be the C3, P Zero Yellow medium will be the C4 and P Zero Red soft will be the C5: the softest combination in the Pirelli range.

These two separate nominations have been made to create a differential between the two races, providing some strategic variation with the introduction of the softest compound for the second weekend.The Red Bull Ring is a compact and rollercoaster track, with a frantic and quite short lap characterised by one corner after another and several changes in elevation. Despite that, it’s not especially demanding on tyres, which is what makes it possible for the softest tyres in the range to be used.”

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, further explained Pirelli’s tyre choice for the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix:

“Once again after last year Austria hosts a back-to-back race, which means that the teams have plenty of data on this track and recent experience of how to deal with its particular challenges and tactics. However, having two different tyre nominations is a first for the Red Bull Ring, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the teams get to grips with the softest C5 tyres for the second race weekend – and how the new selection influences strategy in order to create different opportunities compared to the preceding Steiermark Grand Prix.”

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 21.5 PSI (front) and 20.0 PSI (rear).

Pirelli will give each driver the fixed allocation of eight sets of soft tyres, three sets of medium tyres, and two sets of hard tyres.

2021 Styrian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, June 25th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Mostly cloudy with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 22°C
Chance of rain: 20%

Saturday, June 26th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Scattered showers
Max. temperature: 25°C
Chance of rain: 24%

Sunday, June 27th - Race
Conditions: Thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 26°C
Chance of rain: 84%

Who will be on the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix Podium?

Though chances of rain for Sunday have decreased throughout the week, rain might still be a big factor for the upcoming weekend. If there’s rain on Friday and Saturday, it could still have an impact on Sunday’s race, as teams could be heading to the race without much information on the dry tyres or even out of position.

Race winner Lewis Hamilton, second placed Valtteri Bottas and third placed Max Verstappen stand on the podium after the Formula One Grand Prix of Styria at Red Bull Ring on July 12, 2020 in Spielberg, Austria.

If there’s rain at any point of the weekend, we should still expect Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battling at the front, and it should be highly entertaining. Sergio Pérez, Red Bull’s second driver, finished sixth in both races at Austria last year, even after qualifying in 17th place for the Styrian round for Racing Point.

Now, driving a Red Bull that’s been the best car on the field in 2021, Pérez should be fighting at the front again. On the other end, Valtteri Bottas could make it a race of four at the top, as he has had impressive results at Austria before and could even be a big candidate for qualifying, especially if it is dry and Mercedes can compete with Red Bull.

McLaren and Ferrari should again be competing behind the two dominant forces, though McLaren would like to be a little closer to the front than they were in France (Norris finished fifth, but more than 64 seconds behind the leader). Norris achieved the first podium of his career at Austria’s first race last year, while Leclerc finished at the podium for Ferrari in the Austrian round last year.

If rain comes, the weekend should be very interesting and it could add more drama to the championship fight and other battles throughout the field.

So, here it is, the prediction for your sportsbet website on this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Sergio Pérez.

✅ Check out more posts with related topics: