This weekend in Formula One marks one year from the start of last season which highlights how busy the sport has been. We have seen 26 races in 52 weeks or a race every second week which is a huge accomplishment considering every race had uncertainty.
What is different for this race weekend is the fans are back and being in Austria is like a home Grand Prix for the Dutch fans supporting their hero Max Verstappen. I can't wait for the Dutch Grand Prix to be held on the 3rd - 5th September as we have only seen a few thousand of Max's "orange army" so far. With Max leading the World Championship they could be heard cheering drowning the television commentary today. It seems strange as these are sounds we have all missed and were just used to hearing all the time. The atmosphere makes an event with supporters enjoying themselves part of the highlight.
This race in Austria is a double header and will be the same track as last week. The FIA and Pirelli have changed things though as things need to be slightly different otherwise it could be favoring one or two teams. This weekend the tyres have been softened by 1 level which means that the medium tyre this week is now the soft tyre of last week.
Last week we saw teams using the medium and hard tyres with the latter being used for the longer stint. The softening of the tyres basically means the teams will have to stop at least twice as 30 laps will be about the maximum lifespan of the hard tyre. The Medium tyre should be around 25 laps depending on how hot the track is from the summer sunshine.
Mercedes have a problem as Hamilton and Bottas qualified 4th and 5th which is not ideal as to get to Verstappen they have to get past Perez, and Lando Norris in the McLaren who is lying in second. Both Mercedes drivers have to get into the top 3 as trailing behind another car doesn't help engine temperatures. The cars have ducting which can be adjusted for cooling ,but that also increases drag which is not what they need right now. This is all so new for Mercedes who are used to being out in front and now find themselves having to battle just to maintain the pace.
Red Bull and McLaren have improved so much since last season and McLaren have taken advantage of being allowed to change their chassis due to having a new engine that required a different layout. Quite ironic that engine is a Mercedes engine which has allowed them to make all the improvements and upgrades. This year teams were limited and had a set budget where they had to use a set amount of tokens for any upgrades. Those tokens have a $ value as they are not allowed to spend more than that and have to inform the FIA and Formula One when they are spending them and on what item.
