#Formula1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 Preview. #F1 #AustrianGP

2022 Austrian GP Preview – After Carlos Sainz clinched his maiden victory in his 150^th Grand Prix start for the Scuderia at an action-packed British GP at Silverstone, round eleven of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship season returns to the Red Bull Ring this weekend in Spielberg, Austria for the Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022. This will be the 36^th running of the Austrian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950. This weekend also features the second Sprint Race Format weekend of the year.

 

 

2022 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, Jo Stiffert and Max Verstappen 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.

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2022 Austrian GP Preview – 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 by Max Verstappen in his Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda. The Dutchman posted a blistering 1:03.720, which you can watch right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVkWYtc75Ac

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2022 Austrian GP Preview – The Last Five Winners

 

 

2021: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2020: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2019: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2018: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2017: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1.

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2022 Austrian GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing to Austria this weekend the softest tyres in its range, 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.

 

For all three Sprint Race Format weekends of 2022, drivers will have two sets of hards (C3), four sets of mediums (C4) and six sets of soft (C5) rubber available to them. In addition, there will also be six sets of the green Cinturato Intermediates and three sets of the blue Cinturato Full Wet tyres in-case it rains.

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2022 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.

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2022 Austrian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

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

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ICYMI: Sainz claims maiden victory in thrilling British GP

 

 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took his maiden victory in a wild British GP, disrupted by a horrific opening corner crash, protestors and a safety car, overcoming his team-mate Charles Leclerc to take his first win in his 150^th Grand Prix start.

 

The race required a restart following a huge first corner crash involving Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, whose C42 racer flipped over and hit the catch fencing, and climate change protesters who invaded the circuit.

 

Sainz lead until Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtook him, but then Verstappen suffered bodywork damage and fell down the order.

 

Sainz gave up his track position to team-mate Leclerc, who was in P1 when the safety car was deployed to retrieve a stationery Alpine.

 

In a dramatic restart, Sainz overtook Leclerc for the win, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez taking second, ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton after some thrilling close racing.

 

Leclerc fell to finish fourth due to a tyre disadvantage around him.

 

When the 52 lap British GP began, Verstappen began on the C3 red side-walled softer compounds and launched in-front of pole-sitter Sainz who was on mediums, with the Dutchman getting alongside off the line and moved ahead into Abbey to immediately take the lead from second, whilst Hamilton jumping up from fifth to third, pushing past Perez and Leclerc wide.

 

As Leclerc was attempting to make his way ahead of the Mercedes through Village and Loop, the Grand Prix was red flagged immediately due to a multi-car pile-up behind the leaders at Abbey.

 

The shunt was caused at the quick right-hand first corner, when Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri made contact into Mercedes’ George Russell, whose F1 W13 speared into the side of Zhou’s C42, which flipped over.

 

Zhou slid at high-speed into the gravel trap upside down and in horrific scenes bounced over the tyre barriers and into the catch-fencing, where the C42 came to a rest in-front of the grandstand.

 

Russell got out of his F1 W13 and rushed to help Zhou, who car was stuck between the Armco and debris fence.

 

It took several minutes to get Zhou out of his C42 racer, but fortunately was conscious and was taken to the medical centre.

 

Also involved were Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was clipped from behind in a second incident by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and slammed into the pit-wall before his spinning FW44 was collected by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri. They both slowly travelled back to the pits with damage, whilst Albon joined Zhou in the medical centre for checks.

 

All of those drivers except Albon were able to recover to the pits for repairs, with the Grand Prix suspended for 53 minutes, during which it was announced that several climate change protestors invaded the circuit on the Wellington Straight at the same time as the original start before rapidly being removed.

 

The race was restarted in its original order, as the initial one was halted so rapidly. This time Verstappen was on the yellow-marked C2 mediums like Sainz.

 

Sainz just held onto his lead in the opening sequence of corners, whilst Verstappen came under intense pressure from Leclerc and Perez, as the latter was inflicted with front wing damage against Sainz as the leaders briefly ran four wide at The Loop. Leclerc also sustained front wing damage as he lunged inside the RB18 of Perez.

 

Sainz at first got out of DRS range from Verstappen, with Leclerc in third place in-front of Perez, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Hamilton.

 

Perez opted to pit for a new nose, whilst Hamilton had passed Norris for fourth place at Brooklands on the sixth tour.

 

It took Verstappen a few tours before he was able to push his way into the critical one-second window phase, after which he was able to push Sainz under pressure.

 

On the tenth lap, Sainz had to catch a massive snap of oversteer through Becketts and was snapped off circuit momentarily, which allowed Verstappen to sweep in-front down the Hangar Straight.

 

Verstappen quickly pulled ahead into a one second lead, but this only lasted two laps as he was then slow through Maggots and Becketts with the Dutchman suspected a puncture was picked up after running over the kerbs at Copse Corner on the 12^th lap, but which Red Bull later explained was damage to a small winglet at the rear of his RB18 racer.

 

Verstappen immediately stopped for another set of mediums, Sainz having already moved back into first place with team-mate Leclerc threatening, with Hamilton not far behind.

 

This put Verstappen out of winning contention, with Sainz soon coming under pressure from Leclerc despite the other F1-75 entry’s front wing damage, with the gap down to 0.9 by the 14^th tour.

 

Leclerc was so close that Sainz decided to move down the Hangar Straight, with the charging Ferrari soon insisting he was quicker and urged the team to intervene on the situation.

 

With Ferrari opting to leave things alone, Hamilton was soon closing in on the duo and was just under four seconds behind when Sainz was brought in to ease the Scuderia’s worry at the end of the 20^th lap to put on the C1 white-branded harder rubber.

 

Leclerc then lead the next five tours before stopping, having been losing a few tenths each time from the surging Hamilton.

 

Mercedes did not immediately opt to bring its sole running F1 W13 racer in, deciding to build a tyre off-set whilst Leclerc, having past the difficult tyre warm-up phase on the harder compounds that Sainz had already got through, again closed in on his team-mate.

 

Ferrari gave Sainz a chance to lift his pace but opted that he could not run fast enough and on lap 31 ordered the Spaniard to let his team-mate by.

 

After this, Leclerc pulled clear to lead just under one second, but was matching Hamilton’s times up-front and on lap 33, the Briton was called in to put on the hards, but getting his used front-left medium tyre off took slightly longer and so ended up being a 4.3 second stop, which meant the Mercedes driver came out behind the two F1-75’s.

 

Leclerc began pulling away from team-mate Sainz, who was warned to save fuel, which frustrated him, as the gap between the pairing reached 3.5 seconds at the end of the 38^th tour.

 

But on the next lap, Ocon, who had overtaken Verstappen for eighth with Red Bull having made a second pit-stop for hards, which he felt made the RB18 hobble worse, slowed down the national pits straight.

 

Ocon stopped on track before Copse Corner and the safety car was deployed, with Ferrari leaving Leclerc out on older hard tyres despite appearing to have time to bring him in, as it did for Sainz and Hamilton.

 

This bunched the field up, with Perez, who had been showing strong pace after his early pit-stop, therefore suddenly in with a shot of victory in fourth.

 

Ferrari urged Sainz, who like all front-runners except Leclerc would see out the end on the faster C3 red side-walled softer rubber, to drop back ten car lengths to give the leading F1-75 “breathing space”, a call which the Spaniard rejected.

 

When the race went green on lap 43, Leclerc lost momentum running wide out of Aintree and onto the Wellington Straight, with Sainz flying back into the lead after seeing off his team-mate at Brooklands.

 

Sainz pulled clear, with Leclerc running in-front of Perez, who had dropped the seemingly less-gripped Hamilton as they ran through Aintree behind the two fighting F1-75’s.

 

On the 45^th tour, with Sainz ahead by 2.3 seconds, Leclerc slipped through Luffield, and Perez was all over the Ferrari’s rear, as the Mexican remained close and then made a late, bold lunge on the inside line at Stowe.

 

But Leclerc held on as they went side-by-side through the first two parts of Club, with Perez appearing to go off circuit exiting the second apex and Hamilton then moved ahead of both through the final part running onto the Hamilton Straight opposite the pits.

 

Perez then forced his way past the Silver Arrows at Village on the next tour and pulled clear to chase the leading Ferrari, which ended up useless as the Sainz held on to clinch the British GP victory by 3.779 seconds.

 

However, the action was not over, on the 47^th lap, Hamilton went around the outside of Leclerc all the way around Luffield to run third by the time they reached Woodcote.

 

But Leclerc was not going to give up that easily, and somehow managed to get his older hard tyres to get a run on the outside of Copse Corner, where he repassed the Mercedes in a brilliant move.

 

It was all for nothing as Hamilton flew by with DRS assistance down the Hangar Straight, with the home favourite going on to cross the line 6.225 seconds.

 

Leclerc was able to hold off the close-running Alpine of Fernando Alonso and Norris, both of whom pitted under the safety car as well, to finish fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

 

Points leader Verstappen settled for seventh after also making another stop for softs and withstood pressure from a fast-charging Haas of Mick Schumacher.

 

The German had a look to the inside of Stowe with a couple of tours remaining and then nearly hit Verstappen with a bold move at the initial part of Club on the last lap before backing out of a potential tangle at the final corner a few moments later.

 

This meant Schumacher scored his first points in Formula One in-front of mentor and friend Vettel who was ninth and Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen who rounded out the top ten.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished outside the top ten in 11^th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who took 12^th in the order, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished 13^th and AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda who came last in the classification.

 

The other drivers who retired from the Grand Prix were Gasly and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who both stopped early In the pits during the middle part of proceedings, the former having earlier been spun around at Village when team-mate Tsunoda lost the rear of his AT03 in a move to the inside, for which the Japanese driver was hit with a five-second time penalty.

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2022 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 181 points, and a 34-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who is second on 147 points whilst Charles Leclerc is a further 43 points in third on 138 points.

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing returns to its home circuit on top of the World Constructor’s Championship with 328 points, and a 63-point advantage over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 265 points, while Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are a further 124 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third place on 204 points.

 

Click here for the full 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors standings.

 

The Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 weekend kicks off Friday July 8 with Free Practice 1 and Qualifying, followed by Free Practice 2 and the 100km Qualifying Sprint Saturday July 9 and the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix Sunday July 10.