This Sunday takes place the much awaited second leg of the Formula1 triple-header at the rural Red Bull/Spielberg circuit, nestled among the breathtaking Styrian mountains. Lewis Hamilton arrives in Austria at the lead, followed 14 points behind by rival Vettel. Coincidentally this situation is identical to last year’s…only changing the names around. In 2017 Vettel was 14 points ahead of Hamilton at the start of the AustrianGP, also race number nine of the championship.
The British champion has fond memories of the Spielberg circuit having always classified among the first four and achieved three podiums since this was included in the F1 calendar in 2014. Bottas won at the Red Bull ring in 2017 and had another podium in 2014, in fact, only Hamilton, Bottas and Nico Rosberg have ever won an Austrian GP here. Ricciardo, whose birthday falls on the same day of the race, was third in 2017 and Verstappen came in second in 2016.
The Austrian circuit is famous for its speed and the close proximity of driving, propitiated by its shorter than normal laps. In preparation for this 2018 Grand Prix however, the circuit has undergone some changes, which were announced by the FIA in their official web page last week. Among these is the controversial addition of an extra DRS zone, towards which some drivers have shown their scepticism, including Vettel and Grosjean who fear races could become “too artificial” and resemble too much a game of Mario Kart.
Meanwhile, the calendar of events is already in full swing. Last Wednesday Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen and Dr Helmut Marko went on a tour of the city on board the Grand Prix Tram surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd. Afterwards, they signed the city’s honorary book a the town’s main square where fans were eagerly waiting to meet their idols in the flesh.
On Thursday, lucky attendants to the Red Bull circuit had the privilege of coming up close to the garages and pit boxes on the Pit Lane Walk and enjoyed a unique insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes. Later on, at the F1 Fanzone, they watched teams finalising the details for their test runs of the following day, and they had a chance to meet drivers in person, which signed autographs for their fans.
There was also a press conference attended by Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Räikkönen, Kevin Magnussen and Sergei Sirotkin (Williams). Prompted by journalists, Ricciardo said to be confident about their performance on Sunday: “I think this year, in general, we’ve had good pace on pretty much all layouts we’ve been to (…) In ’16 Max got a podium here, ’17 I did, so hopefully for the fans both of us can manage to get on there on Sunday.” The drivers’ panel was also drilled about their future in F1. In this respect, Ricciardo expressed his wish to have it all tied up before the summer holidays, Magnussen confirmed he will stay with Hass and Kimmi Raikkonen dismissed suggestions of his transfer to McLaren and asked journalists to refrain from anticipating events.
Today is time for the training rounds to which lucky weekend ticket holders are allowed to bring a free guest along and tomorrow we will be able to watch the classification round previous to the race on Sunday.
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