Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2021Formula 1

[BrainsBush]

Already for next Austria GP: new Pirelli tires to test. More robust vs the Baku version. You know the ones that possibly were 'tweaked' by the teams and absolutely nothing done wrong by Pirelli. Yep and the sun turns water into ice.

 

[DG_Silva]

The usual caveats apply, but I was deeply impressed to see this on the hard tyre long runs.

Pos.	Team	Time	Laps
1​	Mercedes	1m09.588s	11​
2​	Red Bull	1m09.621s	16​
3​	Williams	1m09.920s	19​
4​	Ferrari	1m10.086s	18​
5​	McLaren	1m10.442s	7​

Williams also ran just 1/10th second per lap behind Alpha Tauri doing 21 laps over AT's 12 on the soft tyres.

 

[NotThePrez]

Horner's probably doing his best Smug Clarkson impression as we speak.

Only way that penalty is salvageable is if Bottas either nabs pole and/or Perez has a bad qualifying, both of which are quite unlikely. Unless Bottas can fight his way back up come Sunday, Red Bull will likely be in a prime position to put pressure on Lewis early in the race.

 

[andrea]

FIA to force F1 teams to slow down their pit stops

The FIA is to introduce new rules forcing F1 teams to slow down their rapid, two-second tyre changes during races.

www.racefans.net

Merc are clearly throwing toys out of the pram with this one.

 

[ScottPuss20]

These kinds of things won't help Mercedes' cause.

 

[andrea]

"The new pitstop rules" by Toto Wolff & Lewis Hamilton

 

[Grayfox]

How in the hell did Bottas screw that exit up so badly.
Were his tires stone cold or did he just do a sponge bob and floor it?

These kinds of things won't help Mercedes' cause.

These sorts of things wont help get Bottas resigned either

 

[UnkaD]

How in the hell did Bottas screw that exit up so badly.
Were his tires stone cold or did he just do a sponge bob and floor it?
View attachment 1062683



These sorts of things wont help get Bottas resigned either

Maybe he's practicing these pitlane antics ahead of his Indy career.

 

[BrainsBush]

How in the hell did Bottas screw that exit up so badly.
Were his tires stone cold or did he just do a sponge bob and floor it?
View attachment 1062683



These sorts of things wont help get Bottas resigned either

Officially not confirmed but it was said he and the team tried a new kind of launch system when leaving the pit. He drove away in 2nd gear and suddenly the throttle increased too progressive.

 

[shoemaker]

So much for the predicted thunderstorms, nice weather all weekend at the ring. Still should be good as we really dont know who will win, its nice that F1 has become unpredictable again.

 

[Liquid]

Spielberg is about 3 hours away from me. The weather in central Europe is unbearably hot at the moment.

There was a devastating tornado near us earlier in the week but nowhere close to mid-south Austria.

 

[evldave333]

A lot of debate about rule whinging by teams for their own benefit, I wish it was a race to the top rather than dragging teams back. That being said though whinging has brought the racing closer overall (albeit slower) particularly this last 12 months. Removing the the cheat Ferrari fuel game, lowering Merc downforce / removing DAS & RB Flexi wings / auto pit release has got F1 (temporarily) delightfully competitive...

 

[Samus]

EDIT: I was mistaken.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

This could get pretty exciting.

.264 covering the top 9 currently in Q2.

Camera cuts away from Lewis' lap to show Verstappen coming out of the pitlane for 2 seconds. 🙄

 

[NotThePrez]

P14 for Danny Ric, Russell misses out on Q3 by 8 thousandths. 😞

 

[Samus]

Short tracks are always great for qualifying, really close.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

It seemed like Lewis went off track in that last corner for that first lap.

edit: Okay, got it, that's inside track limits for that corner. 😃

 

[BrainsBush]

0.364 is a huge gap for this track and based on the close gaps in Q2. Now run 2

 

[Samus]

In the hands of VER that Red Bull does seem to be the fastest car over a single lap now, based on the last few races. Race trim it's hard to say.

Love how the former drivers on commentary either just don't say anything about those dodgy AWS performance graphics (like Martin) or seriously question them.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Croft talking about the driver performance graphic. Silence from Martin 😅

Tsunoda impeded Bottas.

 

[andrea]

Max Power

 

[BrainsBush]

Yes nice lap!

 

[McLaren]

This will be interesting to see how race strategy pans out. Perez will have both Mercs and a Mac between him and Max, plus Gasly behind him. But, I believe they did say the Red Bulls are on different strats.

 

[Samus]

Love how the former drivers on commentary either just don't say anything about those dodgy AWS performance graphics (like Martin) or seriously question them.

Croft talking about the driver performance graphic. Silence from Martin 😅

Ha, indeed what I was referring to. The drivers know they're 💩

 

[Famine]

Norris starting third

It's worth noting he's the only driver to score points at every Grand Prix so far this year, and his results are 4, 3, 5, 8, 3, 5, 5.


Not sure why Perez was slower in Q3 than Q2. Also did Hamilton give Bottas a slipstream to get him into 2nd to minimise the penalty?

 

[evldave333]

I think we will look fondly back at the competitive start to this season, because it looks like an easy 1 horse (bull) race for the champioship, particularly as the window for development is tiny with focus being strongly on 2022. The sport badly needs a new winner, but it also needs exciting competition too, go figure...

 

[Samus]

Forecasts for tomorrow are again chances of thunderstorms and showers but they had the same for the first two days and practically nothing, so let's see. Without rain It's going to be another race won or lost in strategy I think.

I think we will look fondly back at the competitive start to this season, because it looks like an easy 1 horse (bull) race for the champioship, particularly as the window for development is tiny with focus being strongly on 2022. The sport badly needs a new winner, but it also needs exciting competition too, go figure...

I don't think it's swung that far just yet in race pace. Before the stop in Paul Ricard HAM was comfortably leading and it seemed he had the pace to win it, just lost on strategy obviously.

It's certainly safe to say the comfortable Mercedes pace advantage of years gone by is gone though, for sure. Whichever way it goes, things are going to be fine margins now.

The problem is with these cars when two are very closely matched with two closely matched drivers, having wheel to wheel battles is less likely. No matter who you are, you need a strong pace advantage on the driver ahead to think about passing. So now they're so closely matched, more and more races are going to come down to strategy.

 

[BrainsBush]

Ok interesting start tomorrow. Checo and Lando start on softs so full pressure for Lewis and Max.

 

[Veinz]

It’s still going to be close throughout the race just like France.

 

[BrainsBush]

It’s still going to be close throughout the race just like France.

Hopefully! Best for us spectators.