#Formula1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 Preview. #F1 #AustrianGP

The 2021 Austrian GP Preview is here! After Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, round nine of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship season is at the Red Bull Ring once again this weekend in Spielberg, Austria for the Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 to end a series of back-to-back race weekends in Austria and the triple header of Grands Prix. This will be the 35^th running of the Austrian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950.

 

 

2021 Austrian GP Preview – A look at the Red Bull Ring

 

 

The Red Bull Ring (Formerly A1-Ring) is a permanent racing facility in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.

 

The race circuit was founded as Österreichring and hosted the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. It was later shortened, rebuilt and renamed the A1-Ring, it hosted the Austrian Grand Prix again from 1997 to 2003. When Formula One outgrew the circuit, a plan was drawn up to extend the layout. Parts of the circuit, including the pits and main grandstand, were demolished, but construction work was stopped, and the circuit remained unusable for a few years before it was purchased by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and rebuilt. It was renamed the Red Bull Ring and the track was reopened on 15 May 2011 and hosted a round of the 2011 DTM Season and a round of the 2011 F2 Championship.

 

The old Österreichring was often referred to as being located at Zeltweg, which is bigger and better known. However, the circuit was only modified and never relocated.

 

In addition, the one-off 1964 Austrian Grand Prix was held at Zeltweg Airfield, so the name was already known.

 

The Red Bull Ring is a medium downforce circuit featuring fast straights and slow and medium-speed corners with historically just the first three taken in low gear. As such, lap times were low with sub-1:10s lap. Average speeds were high, with the 2003 race seeing Michael Schumacher win with an average speed of 213km/h.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 4.318km (2.683 miles) in length with ten corners.

 

The race distance is 306.452km with 71 laps in total.

 

Carlos Sainz holds the fastest lap record of the circuit set last year with a 1:05.619 in his McLaren Racing-Renault MCL35.

 

Four-time World Champion Alain Prost and Jo Stiffert have the record for most wins in Austria with three each to their name.

 

Ferrari and McLaren are the most successful constructor in Austria with six victories each.

---

2021 Austrian GP – Onboard Pole Lap of the Red Bull Ring

 

 

Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Red Bull Ring from last year’s event set Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 EQ Performance. The Finn posted a blistering 1:02.939, which you can watch right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeHcml_DhdM

---

2021 Austrian GP Preview – The Last Five Winners

 

 

2020: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2018: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2017: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.

---

2021 Austrian GP Preview – Tyres

 

Pirelli will be bringing to Austria this weekend, the white side-walled C3 Hards, the yellow-branded C4 Mediums and the red-marked C5 Soft rubber along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wet compounds in-case of rain.

 

All drivers will have two sets of hards (C3), three sets of mediums (C4) and eight sets of soft (C5) rubber available to them.

---

2021 Austrian GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

There will be three DRS Zones at the Red Bull Ring. The first zone detection point is 160 metres before turn one, with the activation point 102 metres after turn one. The second zone’s detection point is 40 metres before turn three with the activation point 100 metres after turn three. The final DRS zone’s detection point is 151 metres before turn ten with the activation point 106 metres after turn ten.

---

2021 Austrian GP Preview – Pit-Lane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

---

ICYMI: Verstappen claims dominant Styrian GP victory

 

 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed to a dominant victory at the Styrian GP, ahead of Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

 

The Dutchman produced a faultless drive from start-to-finish at Red Bull’s home Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring and extended his World Driver’s Championship lead to 18 points over Hamilton.

 

When the 71 lap Styrian GP began, Verstappen and Hamilton jumped off the line at the same time, with the Dutchman coming across to cover the Mercedes driver on the inside line into the first corner.

 

As the leading pair raced clear upfront, Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez put McLaren’s Lando Norris under intense pressure for third place through the opening corners, but the latter was able to snub the second Red Bull RB16B entry and even took a look around the outside of Hamilton at the long right downhill turn four.

 

Verstappen charged to a 0.9 second gap at the end of the first tour and by the next lap was out of DRS range from Hamilton behind, with the Red Bull driver’s lead almost three seconds by the end of the opening 10 laps.

 

The front two rapidly pulled clear of Norris, who at first kept Perez and the fast Bottas at bay with solid straight-line speed through the Red Bull Ring’s DRS zones.

 

But on the 10^th tour, Perez dived to the inside of Norris at the tight uphill turn three right hander and took third place as the Briton showed little defence in the move, which Bottas copied on the following lap.

 

By the end of the Grand Prix’s 15^th lap, with Perez 15 seconds adrift in third, Verstappen edged over three seconds clear of Hamilton, as the Dutchman was able to run in the high 1:09’s, whilst the reigning world champion swung between matching the Red Bull and clocking laps in the high 1:10’s bracket.

 

Over the next 13 tours, Verstappen gradually worked his gap to almost six seconds before the pit-stop window opened.

 

Perez was the first of the top four to pit when he stopped at the end of lap 26, to swap his softs for hards, but was held up for 4.8 seconds due to a slow left-rear change.

 

This allowed Bottas to snatch third place when he came in at the end of the following lap to switch the mediums for hards, which Hamilton followed suit a lap later at the end of the 28^th tour.

 

Red Bull reacted by bringing in Verstappen a lap later after Hamilton to also put on the harder compounds and the Dutchman easily kept the lead, although his advantage was reduced to 4.4 seconds by the time the stops were complete.

 

Mercedes told Hamilton to push hard to close the gap, which the Briton brought down to four seconds as he then posted the fastest lap on lap 34, before Verstappen picked his pace up again and edged out his lead once more over the next stage of the Grand Prix as the leaders made their way through traffic.

 

Verstappen’s lead was back to almost six seconds at the end of the 46^th tour, with Bottas nearly 30 seconds off in third place as the final stage of proceedings approached.

 

The only problem Verstappen encountered during the race was a brake by wire issue with the Milton Keynes based-outfit advising the Dutchman it was caused by him braking on the penultimate corner exit kerbs ahead of turn ten.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to clinch the Styrian GP victory by 35.743 seconds, with Hamilton reporting he spotted his front-right tyre blistering in the closing stages, as although the clouds covered the circuit in the final 10 laps, the rain held off.

 

Behind the top two, Bottas held onto finish in the final podium place, but only just in-front of Perez after Red Bull brought the Mexican in for a surprise second stop on the 55^th tour.

 

Perez had an almost 20 second gap to hunt down the Mercedes, having run just behind the Finn for the opening stage of Bottas’ second stint, and he quickly ate into his advantage – sometimes gaining two seconds a tour.

 

But they also made their way through traffic the leaders had already passed, and Perez’s fresh mediums began to wear, the gap came down at a slower rate, with Bottas eventually claiming P3 by just 0.5 seconds, with Perez unable to get close enough to make an overtake in time.

 

McLaren’s Norris settled in a solid fifth place and in-front of Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

 

Sainz’ progress from starting 12^th on the grid came by running long into the Grand Prix on the C3 yellow side-walled medium rubber and overcutting a large group of cars that were running ahead of him in the early proceedings, then moving up into sixth place passing Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll shortly after his stop by using DRS range to blast by the Canadian on the inside of turn three on the 45^th tour.

 

Leclerc’s race to clinch seventh place was more daring, as the Monegasque-youngster was forced to stop on the opening lap after suffering front wing damage after clipping Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on the run to turn three, which gave the AT02 a left-rear puncture.

 

Leclerc made two pit-stops on his way back through the field, showing great pace and making a string of solid overtakes – twice going on the inside of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi at turn three and passing Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso around the outside of turn four – as the former’s pass occurred at the turn-in part of the corner with the Alfa Romeo C41’s front wing picking up a slight bit of damage as the cars briefly touched together.

 

A strong last stint helped Leclerc to recover and get-by Stroll for seventh place, with Alonso ended the race just behind in ninth and only just ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who rounded out the points-paying positions.

 

Raikkonen came home 11^th and ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who was 12^th and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who was 13^th with the latter making an impressive start to run in the top ten in the early proceedings before being hit with a loss of power.

 

Although the Australian’s power returned, he ran in the field from there and ended up in-front of Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon who finished 14^th.

 

The aforementioned Gasly retired on the opening lap after suffering a puncture on the opening tour, with the Frenchman also making contact with the Alfa of Giovinazzi – spinning the C41 at turn three a few moments later after his tangle with Leclerc – as he fought to control his car.

 

In the run-off area beyond the third corner, Gasly also touched Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi (who ended the Grand Prix in 17^th splitting the Haas pairing Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin) and gave the FW43B a puncture before limping his way back to the pits with his left-rear destroyed.

 

The second Williams Racing FW43B entry of George Russell was the other retiree of the race, who was running well behind Alonso in the early proceedings as they lead a pack of cars in the fight for seventh place, which was boosted up by the Leclerc and Gasly tangle.

 

But Russell was warned of a reliability issue ahead of his pit-stop, where he was held for almost 20 seconds as Williams had to top up the pneumatic valve pressure in his Mercedes power-train, until he had to stop again for it to be refilled.

 

Although the Briton emerged to run at the rear of the field for a while, he was called in to retire early on the 39^th tour.

---

2021 Austrian GP Preview – The Situation

 

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen heads to Spielberg sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship standings with 156 points, and an 18-point lead over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who is second on 138 points while the Dutchman’s team-mate Sergio Perez is a further 60 points in third on 96 points.

 

Red Bull Racing returns to its home Grand Prix on top of the World Constructor’s Championship with 252 points, and a 40-point advantage over reigning champions Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team who are second on 212 points, while McLaren Racing-Mercedes are a further 132 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third place on 120 points.

 

Click here for the full 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors standings.

 

The Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 weekend kicks off Friday July 2 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday July 3 and the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix Sunday July 4.