Everything you need to know about the coming 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

The 2023 Formula 1 season continues with its ninth round, the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg. Is it hard to imagine Red Bull's winning streak ending at its home track? Yes, it is.

Will Red Bull be vulnerable now?

Still, if Red Bull has looked 'vulnerable' in any event this year, it was during the 2023 Azerbaijan GP, which featured the first Sprint weekend of the year. Of course, Red Bull's 'vulnerability' in that event was only evident in Qualifying trim, as Sergio Pérez won both the Sprint and the main race for the Austrian team. Red Bull hasn't looked quite sharp in Sprint weekends since they started in 2021, but the dominance could still continue at its home race.

Last year, Ferrari won the Austrian Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc as Red Bull ran into some issues with tyre life. Last year's weekend in Austria was also a Sprint event.

Despite some issues during Sprint weekends, Red Bull's dominance in 2023 seems to be simply too much for rivals and we could bet that it will continue on Sunday.

The team is looking for its ninth straight win to start the 2023 season and the 10th win overall, inching closer to McLaren's all-time record of 11 straight wins to start the 1988 F1 campaign.

On his side, Max Verstappen is leading the World Drivers' Championship comfortably with six wins in eight races and 195 points. The Dutchman is followed by his teammate, Pérez, with two wins and 126 points. Fernando Alonso is third for Aston Martin with 117 points, with Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) fourth with 102. The rest of the drivers of the Top 4 teams (Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari) have Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) in fifth with 68 points, George Russell (Mercedes) sixth with 65, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari with 54) and Lance Stroll in eighth with 37 points.

Red Bull leads the World Constructors' Championship comfortably with eight win in eight races and 321 points, the same tally scored by second-placed Mercedes (167) and third-placed Aston Martin (154) combined.

Ferrari is fourth in the WCC with 122 points, followed by Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly) with 40 points. McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) is sixth with only 17 points.

Alfa Romeo (nine points with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu), Haas (eight points with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg), Williams (seven points with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant), and AlphaTauri (two points with Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck De Vries) round out the World Constructors' Championship positions.

2023 Austrian GP Facts & Figures

The 2023 edition of the Austrian GP will be the 36th in F1's history.

The Austrian Grand Prix was first held as a World Championship race in 1964 at Zeltweg and Lorenzo Bandini won it for Ferrari. In the 1964 race, Jochen Rindt made his F1 debut and he would become the first Austrian to win the World Title in 1970.

From 1965 to 1969, the race was not part of the World Championship. In 1970, the Österreichring made its first appearance in the World Championship calendar and Ferrari won again, this time with Jacky Ickx behind the wheel of the beautiful 312B. Sadly, the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix was Rindt’s final race start before he tragically lost his life during practice in Italy.

Jackie Stewart achieved his second World Title in Austria in 1971, while Vittorio Brambilla, John Watson, and Alan Jones became Grand Prix winners in the Austrian circuit. Also, Elio de Angelis took his first Formula 1 win in Austria in 1982. The race was scrapped from the F1 calendar after 1987 and returned with a revamped circuit and renamed as the A-1 Ring, which was safer than the previous layout, where American driver Mark Donohue sustained a horrible accident in 1975 that eventually took his life.

Hermann Tilke was in charge of the modernization of the track and it provided some good races from 1997 to 2003. However, there was controversy in 2002, when Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to let Michael Schumacher through. Schumacher was leading the championship comfortably and Barrichello had dominated the weekend.

Fernando Alonso into first corner

The circuit returned in 2014, again renamed, this time as the Red Bull Ring, with the brand as the owner. Mercedes dominated from 2014 to 2017 with Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull was finally competitive enough in 2018 and 2019 and Verstappen took two great victories, especially in 2019 with great overtaking.

Bottas won the 2020 edition, while Verstappen won the 2021 race. On his side, Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari its sixth win at the circuit in 2022.

In 2020 and 2021, the circuit also hosted the Styrian Grand Prix, with Hamilton winning in 2020 and Verstappen in 2021.

Alain Prost and Max Verstappen lead the drivers’ table with three wins in the Austrian GP (Verstappen has four wins at the track), while McLaren and Ferrari lead the teams with six victories in the venue.

Red Bull Ring Track info

The track, although a relatively new circuit, has some old-school style to it and is a pure racing venue in its own right. The shortened version of the original Österreichring, now named 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 hot spots of the track, Turn 1 is often a site of battles 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, there have been many overtaking opportunities lately and on-track battles have been fairly entertaining.

The circuit length is 4.318 km and the lap records are held by Valtteri Bottas (outright record: 1:02.939 min in qualifying for the 2020 race) and Carlos Sainz (Fastest Lap during the 2020 race: 1:05.619 min.)

2023 Austrian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix will be the C3 compound as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow medium and C5 as P Zero Red soft at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Pirelli's Motorsport Director, Mario Isola, gave his views on the upcoming weekend: “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 minimum starting pressures for the dry tyres are 23.0 psi (front) and 20.0 psi (rear).

2023 Austrian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, June 30th - FP & Qualifying
Conditions: Scattered thunderstorms
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 81%

Saturday, July 1st - Sprint Shootout & Sprint Race
Conditions: Rain
Max. temperature: 19°C
Chance of rain: 76%

Sunday, July 2nd - Main Race
Conditions: Partly sunny with a thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 36%

Who will be on the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix Podium?

Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 2nd, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1st , Laurent Mekies, Racing Director, Ferrari, and Sir Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 3rd, on the podium during the 2023 Austrian GP

Red Bull is more than likely to take its 10th consecutive victory and the ninth straight success to start the 2023 Formula 1 season. Oddsmakers obviously expect it to happen, with Max Verstappen also as the favorite to take home his 42nd career F1 win and the seventh in nine races in 2023.

Of course, Red Bull has not been as dominant as other weekends in Sprint events since the introduction of that new format in 2021, perhaps due to the shortened amount of practice teams get to fully prepare their cars.

The most recent race without a Red Bull win came in Brazil last year and it was during a Sprint weekend. Of course, it is still a lot of dominance from the Austrian team and a Sprint event might not completely change that. However, if the streak ends this weekend, the Sprint format might have something to do with it and you won't be able to say that we didn't warn you.

Still...

Our podium prediction for the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Fernando Alonso.

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