The Official 2016 Austrian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Dr Z]

Date(s): Friday 01 July - Sunday 03 July 2016

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1, with Channel 4 showing highlights of qualifying and race.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0845	-	0900	1000
Practice 2	Fri	1245	-	1300	1400
Practice 3	Sat	0945	-	1000	1100
Qualifying	Sat	1200	1730	1300	1400
Race	Sun	1130	1800	1300	1400

Red Bull Ring, Spielberg



Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Info such as lap times, PU use, technical reports, stewards decisions etc for the weekend will appear here:

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-ch...

Weather forecast:

https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/10day/l/16666:25...

Day	Comment	High/Low (°C)	Chance of Rain
Fri	Showers	24/14	70%
Sat	Showers	24/14	40%
Sun	Showers	24/13	60%

The tyre choices requested by the teams:



NB: Teams have a choice between two tyre types they must run during this race. Rules are that they must have at least one set from both compounds available for the race. The mandatory tyres are Soft and Super Soft.

2015 Qualifying:

POS.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.218	1:09.062	1:08.455
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.976	1:08.634	1:08.655
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:11.184	1:09.392	1:08.810
4	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:11.830	1:09.719	1:09.192
5	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India	1:11.319	1:09.604	1:09.278
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:11.894	1:09.598	1:09.319
7	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:11.307	1:09.631	1:09.612
8	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:12.092	1:10.187	1:09.694
9	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:12.001	1:09.652	1:09.713
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:11.821	1:09.920	DNS
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:11.661	1:10.374	-
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:12.388	1:10.426	-
13	Carlos Sainz, Jr	Toro Rosso	1:11.158	1:10.465	-
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:11.973	1:10.482	-
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:12.508	1:10.736	-
16	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:12.522	-	-
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:12.632	-	-
18	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.867	-	-
19	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:14.071	-	-
20	Will Stevens	Manor	1:15.368	-	-

2015 Race:

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	71	1:30:16.930	2
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+8.8001	1
3	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	71	+17.573	4
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	71	+18.181	3
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	71	+53.604	6
6	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	71	+1:04.075	5
7	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	10
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	70	+1 Lap	7
9	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	70	+1 Lap	13
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	+1 Lap	18
11	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+1 Lap	8
12	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	+1 Lap	15
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+2 Laps	11
14	Roberto Merhi	Marussia-Ferrari	68	+3 Laps	16
Ret	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes	34	Gearbox	9
Ret	Carlos Sainz, Jr	Toro Rosso-Renault	34	Electrical	12
Ret	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	7	Electrical	20
Ret	Will Stevens	Marussia-Ferrari	1	Oil leak	17
Ret	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	0	Collision	14
Ret	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	0	Collision	19

Fastest Race Lap: 1:11.235 (Lap 35; N. Rosberg, Mercedes)

---

Leaving behind the streets of Baku, we return to the very different scenery of the Red Bull Ring. It’s hard to say but the fast and flowing layout probably favours Rosberg’s style more, however Hamilton was pretty quick around here in 2014. If my (armchair) calculations are correct, we could be in for a genuine 4-5 way fight at this GP, mainly featuring Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull pilots. However, a very high chance of rain is being forecast, so it could be even better if rain arrives during the race and/or qualifying.

If dry and cold/overcast we could see a repeat of tyre graining issues experienced by teams, but it looks like the practice sessions have similar forecast, so teams will likely be able to optimise their package to work the tyres in race representative conditions.

Also, if we have a dry race, I reckon we could come within a second of the overall race lap record set back in 2003. Looking forward to it.

The thing that caught my eye in the tyre selections is the fact that Haas have toned down their strategy of maxing out on the grippiest tyres, to the exclusion of others. I think they suffered with the strategy of having their race tyre strategy built around the fastest tyre available and while it worked to great effect in the earlier races, it did not give them that flexibility in some of the recent races. It seems the works Renault team are taking Haas’ place with that approach!

Edited by Dr Z on Friday 1st July 09:37

[Flooble]

Another awesome starter Dr. Z!

Interesting that Red Bull had issues at the last race, having to switch to the Medium tyre. I wonder if they may struggle here with their tyre selection limiting their options to correct the suspension issue?

Hoping for rain ... and expecting another awful start by Hamilton (he lost last year thanks to a poor getaway).

Edited by Flooble on Wednesday 22 June 14:13

[VolvoT5]

I vastly prefer dry races and certainly dry qualifying.

Ferrari seem to have gone more aggressive on their tyres than most so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

[Dr Z]

Flooble said:

Another awesome starter Dr. Z!

Interesting that Red Bull had issues at the last race, having to switch to the Medium tyre. I wonder if they may struggle here with their tyre selection limiting their options to correct the suspension issue?

I think the problems experienced by RB in Baku had a lot to do with the fact that they struggled to find the right compromise between rear downforce and drag levels required to compete with the straight line speeds of the competition. The problem in Canada was one of setup meeting wrong conditions I believe...

Recently motorsport.com published the ideal working range of this year's Pirelli tyres which cleared up a lot for me:

Tyre	Ideal Temp Range (C)
Hard	105-135°
Medium	90-120°
Soft	100-125°
Supersoft	85-115°
Ultrasoft	85-115°

Immediately, you can see that a car setup to keep the Ultrasoft and Supersoft in it's optimum window (85-115) is likely to be more comfortable on the Medium tyre (90-120) than either the Hard or Soft as these latter tyres' operating window doesn't share much overlap with the Super Soft or Ultra Soft.

Austria is not a low downforce track, infact it reminds me of Barcelona without the Sector 3. So, Red Bull should be able to run closer to their optimum downforce levels which helps in getting heat in to the tyres and also prevent the rear tyres from sliding--this was the problem reported in Baku for RB. But durability of the tyres also comes in to it, so the working range of the Medium tyre plus it's better durability meant the Red Bull was doing better on it...the drawback was obviously the pace disadvantage vs Soft.

In Canada, the Soft tyre was mandatory but due to the cool conditions/track surface, a car that's setup to work the Super Soft/Ultra Soft in it's optimum temp (say 100 C, bang in the middle of 85 to 115), needs to put more energy in to the Softs to get it to it's optimum temp (let's say 112.5 C).

But because the track temp was cooler than anticipated, the car was prone to putting the Soft tyre out of it's working range (below 100 C), whereas Super Soft and Ultra Soft were still within their working temperature range at those temps and give good grip. This was further exacerbated by the track layout not having many fast corners and being low grip/abrasiveness in general that meant less energy going through the tyres over a lap, and less chance to put energy/heat in to the tyres to bring them up to temp.

This is my understanding. Happy to be corrected by any real engineers lurking.

[suffolk009]

I think Hamilton kinda needs this one.

[Blayney]

There's still a long way to go in this championship. Even if they 1-2 from now with HAM leading ROS then they swap positions in Germany with 9 races to go...

If Ferrari/RBR have a late surge/Mercs take each other out again then there's even a possibility to open up the championship even more, albeit a small chance.

I think Hamilton will edge this one though. Mind you, I always think that.

[Jasandjules]

At some stage, and I don't wish, but I mean the odds are, Nico will have a mechanical problem such as has beset Lewis.. That may well flip the Championship on it's head... Let's face it, one DNF for Nico and one win for Lewis and the game is seriously on.... Of course, the reverse may also happen.

It's too early to write either off, though my money is on Lewis to win it.

[TheInternet]

Wrong thread for it but I see Williams have claimed the fastest pitstop record in Baku at 1.89s and say they can go even faster. Mighty impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCYBtx6h4g

[Vaud]

TheInternet said:

Wrong thread for it but I see Williams have claimed the fastest pitstop record in Baku at 1.89s and say they can go even faster. Mighty impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCYBtx6h4g

Truly impressive choreography and teamwork.

Shows how far we have moved ahead from this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcznN0PPgDk

(best quality I could find)

Edited by Vaud on Friday 24th June 19:22

[Flooble]

Jasandjules said:

At some stage, and I don't wish, but I mean the odds are, Nico will have a mechanical problem such as has beset Lewis.. That may well flip the Championship on it's head... Let's face it, one DNF for Nico and one win for Lewis and the game is seriously on.... Of course, the reverse may also happen.

It's too early to write either off, though my money is on Lewis to win it.

Hamilton only has one MGU-H left to use and is short on several other components too, so realistically he is going to be stretching the life of his equipment and thus will be far more likely to have a mechanical failure than Nico. Sadly for Hamilton, his failures will have ensured that Nico's units are more reliable as the weaknesses will have been corrected before Nico comes to use them.

[suffolk009]

^^ Lewis is mechanically broken.

[tonybhr]

I always forget to post outside of races but have to write today to say these thread openers ought to win a championship themselves.

Edited by tonybhr on Saturday 25th June 11:49

[sandman77]

Flooble said:

Hamilton only has one MGU-H left to use and is short on several other components too, so realistically he is going to be stretching the life of his equipment and thus will be far more likely to have a mechanical failure than Nico. Sadly for Hamilton, his failures will have ensured that Nico's units are more reliable as the weaknesses will have been corrected before Nico comes to use them.

This and he is likely to be given a few grid penalties for using more than his allocation of engines. I really hope the championship doesn't get decided by stupid grid penalties.

[Vaud]

sandman77 said:

This and he is likely to be given a few grid penalties for using more than his allocation of engines. I really hope the championship doesn't get decided by stupid grid penalties.

True, but it used to be decided by random engine failures / having to use the T-Car, so the main difference I see these days is a level of cost control, increased reliability and so some better racing?

Reliability is pretty damn impressive!

[S0 What]

Vaud said:

sandman77 said:

This and he is likely to be given a few grid penalties for using more than his allocation of engines. I really hope the championship doesn't get decided by stupid grid penalties.

True, but it used to be decided by random engine failures / having to use the T-Car, so the main difference I see these days is a level of cost control, increased reliability and so some better racing?

Reliability is pretty damn impressive!

You'r not wronge there, i watched a 3 hour 2005 season review last night on you tube and there where more blow up than finishers in most races

[HustleRussell]

Can anybody recommend an F1 podcast? There don't seem to be any Austria previews out there yet...

[Vaud]

HustleRussell said:

Can anybody recommend an F1 podcast? There don't seem to be any Austria previews out there yet...

Aren't most previews are after FP1/2 when they get a sense of team performance?

BBC Chequered Flag is still ok. Aside with Joe (though infrequent) is a must listen in my view.

[Vocal Minority]

Rosberg going a shade more aggressive with the tyres, as are Ferrari.

Could McLaren be accused of being a little unambitious?

[BaronVonVaderham]

HustleRussell said:

Can anybody recommend an F1 podcast? There don't seem to be any Austria previews out there yet...

Such a shame that F1 Rejects no longer do their thing.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

BaronVonVaderham said:

HustleRussell said:

Can anybody recommend an F1 podcast? There don't seem to be any Austria previews out there yet...

Such a shame that F1 Rejects no longer do their thing.

I like For F1's Sake for an irreverent view on each race.