July 7, 2022
Weekend Schedule (in EST):
Practice 1: Friday 7/8, 7:30-8:30 AM
Qualifying: Friday 7/8, 11:00-12:00 AM-PM
Practice 2: Saturday 7/9, 6:30-7:30 AM
Sprint: Saturday 7/9, 10:30-11:30 AM
Race: Sunday 7/10, 9:00 AM
For those who don’t know, a sprint weekend entails 2 practice sessions, Qualifying, the Sprint race, and the Race on Sunday. Qualifying will determine the order of the grid for the Sprint, and the results of the Sprint will determine the order of the starting grid for Sunday’s race. The Sprint race also awards points to the top 8 finishers, with 8 points going to the winner and 1 point for the person in 8th place. At this stage in the season, these extra points could make a big difference in the championship, so it will be cool to see what the outcome is. There are a maximum of 34 points up for grabs this weekend, so hopefully Ferrari and Charles Leclerc can maximize on points!
The circuit, called the Red Bull Ring, has 3 DRS zones and 10 corners. As I said before, there are elevation changes throughout the track. The first half has three straights and uphill turns, so the car has to have low drag and use a lot of power. Then, the track goes downhill with some quick corners, requiring less power but more downforce and control over the car. It is impossible for a car to have low drag AND high downforce, so teams will have to find that happy medium where they can make the most out of their laps without losing too much time in certain areas of the track. This means that the car’s set up should be good, which will be much harder for teams this weekend because they only have one practice session before Qualifying. The DRS zone near Turns 2, 3, and 4 will allow for a lot of close battles. Turn 2 and Turn 3 are pretty close together, and then there is a straight just before turn 4. With DRS, drivers will be able to overtake and retake positions during these turns, so maybe we’ll get some phenomenal racing again this weekend!
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| The track sort of shaped like a whale! |
Silverstone showed us that we might have 3 teams fighting for the championship: Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes. Although Carlos Sainz ended up winning the race in Britain, it wasn’t clear who would win until the last few laps. There were times where Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) led, times where Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) led, and times where Max Verstappen (Red Bull) led. We know for a fact that Red Bull and Ferrari will be competing against each other in Spielberg, and if Mercedes’ form stays like it was in Britain, we’ll have a three way fight again.
Last week, I said we should watch out for the emerging battle between Alpine and McLaren. Well, that battle just got harder. At Silverstone, Fernando Alonso’s Alpine finished ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris. They were the only drivers from their teams to score points, so Alonso was able to close the points gap. Now, McLaren is ahead in the championship by just 6 points. Spielberg is a special place for Lando Norris. He got his first podium here in 2020, and got another podium the following year in 2021. He is good at this track, so maybe we could get another Lando podium this year? I think he should make it three years in a row. There is also a chance we could have a Carlando podium! For those who don’t know, Carlando is the affectionate way us fans refer to Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris because of their amazing friendship. Carlos Sainz is just coming from his first win and he’s driving a Ferrari, so there really is a chance of getting a Carlando podium!
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| 2021 Austrian Grand Prix Podium (Imagine if Lando wins this weekend and gets his first win one week after Carlos’ first win! I know it’s very unlikely that it will happen, but it’s fun to dream.) |
The track is called the Red Bull Ring because an owner of Red Bull bought the track and rebuilt it. Austria is always considered a home race for Red Bull because they have a base in Salzburg. It may not be their main headquarters, but they still get a lot of support from the crowd. There isn’t an Austrian driver on the grid, but from the amount of support he gets, you would think Max Verstappen were Austrian. The stands will be a sea of orange (because Verstappen is Dutch), and Lando Norris can continue to make jokes about how the orange is for McLaren!
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| All of "Lando Norris’" fans when he wins the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix (I am now speaking this win into existence) |
Last weekend, Charles Leclerc closed his points gap to Sergio Perez to a 9 point difference. However, he needs to finish ahead of Perez this weekend if he wants to start challenging Verstappen for the Championship. Over the past few weeks, Leclerc has not had good races. As much as I would love for Lando to win this weekend, I think we might need to put our hopes for him on hold to get Leclerc back into the Championship fight. Sorry Lando.
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| When Lando got his first podium, he finished P3. Having finished p4, Leclerc shared it with him. We need them to share the podium again, but with Leclerc P1 and Lando P2. |
Honorable Mentions:
I was reading an article from McLaren when researching for this post and the author started the article with, “The Styrian hills are alive with the sound of F1 engines”. Thank you to whoever wrote this article. I love McLaren infinitely more now because they referenced The Sound of Music.
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| For those who don’t know, The Sound of Music (which is probably one of the most iconic movies of all time) takes place in the Austrian Alps, just like the Austrian Grand Prix. |
There you have it! Everything you need to know for the Austrian Grand Prix. Overall, I think this weekend should be interesting. There will be a lot of action with the Sprint format, a lot of unpredictable Austrian weather, and hopefully there will be a Charles Leclerc win with a Carlando podium! I will be back after the weekend to tell you if my dreams came true!
Happy Race Weekend!
~Divya
Where I got these
from: