Max Verstappen looks to make it three wins on the bounce to continue on his strong trajectory for the 2024 season, whilst Lando Norris will look to avenge what seemed to be a strong opportunity having slipped through his grasp in Spain.
The Big Stories
The 2025 market has taken more of a clearer shape, with two drivers having been confirmed to be staying at their teams next season. Pierre Gasly put pen to paper on a new multi-year deal with Alpine that will see him stay with the team into the new regulations, whilst Lance Stroll was unsurprisingly confirmed to be retained by Aston Martin for the foreseeable future. Haas are also expected to make an announcement soon regarding their first choice for their 2025 lineup, which is expected to be Ollie Bearman, who has already made a couple of FP1 outings for the team this season. The announcement is likely to be made around the British Grand Prix next weekend.
Changes have been made to the Red Bull Ring ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. Issues with track limits had been a prominent talking point during last year’s Grand Prix, with over 1200 incidents having been investigated over the course of the weekend. To combat this being such a big headache this year, small gravel traps were installed in the final two corners, where the majority of incidents took place, in an attempt to make things more self policing for drivers regarding the limits of the track.
What can we expect from the Austrian Grand Prix?
The Red Bull Ring produces the fastest laps of the entire season, meaning that traffic will be a significant factor to watch out for during this weekend’s qualifying sessions. This will be the third of six Sprint Race weekends over the course of this season, following on from China and Miami.
The short nature of the track also means that tyre wear isn’t the harshest around this circuit, which is why Pirelli have opted to bring the softest tyre compounds in their range. The fastest strategy last year was a three stop by Max Verstappen, but with that final stop coming towards the end of the race to allow the Dutchman to go for the fastest lap and score an extra point, so expect a two stop strategy to win out this time around.
Safety cars have came out rather regularly at this circuit in recent years, with all but one race held at the Red Bull Ring since 2020 having featured at least one full course caution, which can have the opportunity to play a pivitol role in the strategy for the teams.
Rain may also play a factor in this weekend’s running. Whilst chances for showers sit at about 20% for both Friday and Saturday, the odds of rain falling increase to 40% for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Typically Sprint Race weekends aren’t going to be the best time for teams to bring new upgrades, given that they’ll only have one practice session to test them out, though half of the grid have still brought updates to their cars this weekend. These teams are Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, RB and Kick Sauber, but all of these changes are relatively minor in scope.
Lando Norris has left the last couple of races feeling frustrated to not have picked up a victory. A poorly timed safety car caught the McLaren driver out in Canada, whilst a poor start in Spain left him on the back foot for the entire race, despite having what Norris felt was the fastest car on the day. However, the Brit is confident that the pace will be there in Austria, and that the team have learned from the mistakes made in Spain.
Verstappen has historically done very well at the Red Bull Ring, having climbed to the top step of the podium in 5 of the last 8 races held at the circuit. This, along with Norris and McLaren’s strong run of form, means that there is a good shout for another close fight for the win during Saturday’s Sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Driver’s Standings
- Max Verstappen – 219 points
- Lando Norris – 150 points
- Charles Leclerc – 148 points
- Carlos Sainz – 116 points
- Sergio Perez – 111 points
- Oscar Piastri – 87 points
- George Russell – 81 points
- Lewis Hamilton – 70 points
- Fernando Alonso – 41 points
- Yuki Tsunoda – 19 points
- Lance Stroll – 17 points
- Daniel Ricciardo – 9 points
- Oliver Bearman – 6 points
- Nico Hulkenberg – 6 points
- Pierre Gasly – 5 points
- Esteban Ocon – 3 points
- Alex Albon – 2 points
- Kevin Magnussen – 1 point
- Zhou Guanyu – 0 points
- Valtteri Bottas – 0 points
- Logan Sargeant – 0 points
Constructor’s Standings
- Red Bull – 330 points
- Ferrari – 270 points
- McLaren – 237 points
- Mercedes – 151 points
- Aston Martin – 58 points
- RB – 28 points
- Alpine – 8 points
- Haas – 7 points
- Williams – 2 points
- Kick Sauber – 0 points
I’m a 23 year old journalist that loves all things racing. I have attended, the British Grand Prix and Belgian Grand Prix in previous years, and look forward to revisiting such iconic tracks again this year. Also, Daniel Ricciardo almost blanked me once when I tried to get a picture with him at Goodwood!
