Formula 1 was back for practice at the Red Bull Ring for its second race of the double header at the Red Bull Ring and the final race of the triple header which included France as well. The new tyre compounds, the performances and the on track action provided an insight into some very crucial points regarding the weekend which will hold much importance to all the teams.
This is what the Friday Sense tells us:
- The track is the same, but the race is different and so will be the results: Even if the winner is same, there will be definite changes in the Top 5 due to several reasons such as weather conditions, the tyre compounds, the understanding of the track and the aero changes a few of the cars have. The results will be definitely different because of even other reasons such as Bottas not having a grid penalty and so on.
- THE TIRING QUESTION OF THE TYRE: The compounds are one step softer for the Austrian GP as compared to the Styrian GP. In the Styrian GP, almost all drivers did a one – stop strategy and it seemed that on older tyres, the cars were struggling just that bit towards the end and with each compound now being a step softer it means that the Medium compound of the Austrian GP is the same as the Soft compound of the Styrian GP. This firstly might mean that 2 stops will be inevitable which also makes the strategy calls the teams make interesting. Undercut or Overcut? How long can the drivers drive without losing much time? A three stopper at any point basically it being medium to soft to soft? These questions and scenarios arise but one thing for sure is that such weekends will most probably benefit drivers like Sergio Perez who will get rewarded once again for their tyre preservation skills.
- Also, the Qualifying becomes interesting. It almost is confirmed that drivers from Red Bull and Mercedes, who have enough pace will go out on medium tyres but the question that will remain is that can anyone else on soft tyres beat them by any chance into Q3, forcing them also to switch on softs? The probability is a bit low if you talk about Verstappen and Hamilton having to do so because the difference in pace seems enough for them to get through safely on the medium compound tyres. But for teams like Alpine and Ferrari, it will be all about squeezing those hundredths of a second out.
- Finally, this weekend will mean a lot for Lewis Hamilton who seems to have been training more and trying out everything in order to get a victory. The race result which might not go in Mercedes’ favour (around a 45% chance of it not going in Mercedes’ favour) can define atleast the fact that Honda leaving F1 is not so good for Red Bull Racing.
All in all, it will be a very important weekend were strategy will play a big role and this weekend can have several effects in the future.
|THE RACING TO THE EDGE CONTINUES|
spielens 