The Hills are Alive with the Sound of F1! This year, F1 decided to make the Austrian Grand Prix a Sprint weekend. This would be the first race without Red Bull’s boss Dietrich Mateschitz, who sadly passed away on October 22, 2022. He was instrumental in recovering the racetrack and bringing back Formula 1 to Austria.

THE AREA:

Styria (German: Steiermark) is a state (Bundesland) in the southeast of Austria. With an area of 16,401 km2 (6,332 sq mi), Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, by the Austrian states of Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The state capital is Graz, with a museum dedicated to the city’s favorite son: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

THE CIRCUIT:

The Red Bull Ring is located in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. It was later shortened from 5.9 km to 4.3 km, rebuilt and renamed the A1-Ring, and 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 several years before it was purchased by Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz and rebuilt. Renamed the Red Bull Ring the track was reopened on 15 May 2011, Formula One returned to the circuit in the 2014 season, The Red Bull Ring also hosted a second F1 event named the Styrian Grand Prix in 2020 and 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic affected the schedules of both of those seasons.

The Red Bull Ring is 677m above sea level and has 63.5m of elevation change, second only on the F1 calendar to Spa-Francorchamps (102.2m).  And at just 4.3 kilometers in length, with ten corners, it is one of the shortest of the season.

On 30 June 2019, in honor of the late 3-time Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda, the first turn of the track was renamed the "Niki Lauda Turn".

Racetracks don’t come much more picturesque than the Red Bull Ring, set in an idyllic natural bowl in the Styrian mountains. That makes for a pleasant environment for a Grand Prix. 

FRIDAY

Since this is a Sprint weekend, the new format for 2023 dictates just a 1-hour Practice session, followed by Sunday’s Grand Prix Qualifying on Friday.

Although rain was forecasted for the whole weekend, it was a beautiful day. And as soon as the green light was shown at the end of the pitlane, everyone went out for their first taste of the Red Bull Ring in 2023, a very crucial one that was.

And after the sixty minutes had passed, without much drama, it was a home advantage for Red Bull with the championship leader setting the fastest time of the session ahead of the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc

QUALIFYING

Odd weekends these Sprint Race ones with just one hour of practice and qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix on Friday. Nevertheless, it is always exciting to see these cars perform at their maximum over the one lap that sets up the grid.

Q1

Sixteen of the twenty cars came out immediately to set up a fast lap early on, even though there was a strong track evolution as time went by.

Red flag for Valtteri Bottas as his Alfa Romeo spun at Turn 1, stalling the car. After a few seconds, he was able to restart the C43. 11:49 left on the clock.

During the ‘forced break’, the stewards informed of several driver’s laps were deleted as they ignored track limits, resulting in Oscar Piastri’s time as the fastest! Although that didn’t last long as the former order was reinstated, Verstappen from Sainz, from Leclerc.

Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, and Nick de Vries did not improve their times and were eliminated from qualifying.

Q2

The second part of qualifying started with the Red Bulls going fastest, but as had happened in Q1, several driver’s times were deleted, and the early order was Norris from Hulkenberg from Stroll!

Unbelievable the number of laps being deleted due to track limits, the least expected was Sergio Perez! Knocked out were George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri, and Sergio Perez.

Q3 

Superb qualifying that was, and a blistering fast lap of 1:04.391 was enough for Max Verstappen to claim Pole Position for Sunday’s Grand Prix. He was followed by Charles Leclerc, just 0.048 behind! Carlos Sainz came in third fastest, followed by Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon, the ten fastest.

SATURDAY

SPRINT SHOOTOUT

There was heavy rain overnight and almost all morning long, but it did stop in time for the shootout, and a dry line was visible on track, although it was still damped, and it was cold. The Shootout rules state that teams must use medium tires on SQ1, but since the track was declared wet, the teams could use any tires they see fit.

SQ1

The 12-minute-long session started with mixed strategies, with some of the drivers on intermediate tires, others on slicks.

Track evolution was king, with lap times tumbling down as the track dried even more. Nevertheless, once the 12 minutes had gone, Charles Leclerc went through by the skin of his teeth down in 15th place! but the big surprise was Lewis Hamilton, as the Britton could not do any better than 18th! Eliminated were, Zhou Guanyu, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, and Logan Sargeant.

SQ2

Shootout 2 was a quick one, only 10 minutes long. Used soft tires for everyone, but Russell, as his team was working frantically on his car with hydraulic issues, only to drop out with no time set and in 15th place.

Knocked out were Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Nick de Vries, and George Russell. Real disappointment for Mercedes, they got one car in 15th and one in 18th for the Sprint.

SQ3

The final 10 drivers had 8 minutes to sort the starting order up front of the grid for the Sprint later on. Once finished, it was Max Verstappen who claimed the Sprint Qualifying pole position, almost half a second ahead of Sergio Perez, with Lando Norris third. Then came Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, and Kevin Magnussen completing the Top Ten.

The FIA informed the stewards had penalized Leclerc for impeding Piastri in SQ1, Dropping him from sixth to ninth on the Sprint grid.

SPRINT

It rained between the Shootout and the Sprint, cleaning the track yet again. Forecast was more rain during the afternoon, and with less than thirty minutes to the start of the race, it started raining as cars took to the track to go to their respective places on the grid.

The Sprint started with Max Verstappen losing the lead to teammate Sergio Perez, but quickly fought back and settled into a rhythm up front, cruising away from the competition to cross the line comfortably clear of the Mexican and Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz.

With eight laps to go, Russell reported that conditions were not far off slicks and a few laps later he went into the pits for a set of soft tires. Verstappen, Perez, Sainz and a handful of other front-runners stayed on intermediate tires for the full encounter, holding enough of a margin over a host of drivers who moved to slicks late on but could not make up more than the ground they had lost.

In the end, it was Verstappen who crossed the line more than 20 seconds clear of Perez. Carlos Sainz completed the podium finishers from a battling Stroll and Alonso, and Hulkenberg, who worked his way back up to sixth, and three crucial points for the American team, heading into the night in seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Dramatic finish between Ocon and Russell, with the Frenchman defending his seventh place by 0.009 seconds!

SUNDAY

It was sunny and warmer at Spielberg, although rain was looming in the air. News in the paddock was that The Red Bull Ring had signed a new agreement with F1 to keep the Austrian Grand Prix at least to 2030. Also, the stewards reported that Kevin Magnussen and Nick de Vries were to start from the pit lane after having changed components in parc fermé on Saturday before the sprint.

Just before the Austrian National Hymn a minute of silence was observed in the memory of Dilano van 't Hoff, an 18 year old Formula Regional European Championship racer who passed away after a horrendous accident at Spa-Francorchamps the day before.

Just before the start, the track temperature was 33 degrees Celsius, and the air temperature, 22 degrees Celsius. Would it rain during the race?

RACE

Verstappen made a strong start from pole position, holding off Leclerc and keeping the lead as the cars approached Turn 1. Carlos Sainz held onto third place initially, but Lando Norris, who started fourth, lost ground to Lewis Hamilton at the start. Further back in the field, Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri collided with one of the Alpines, damaging his front wing and prompting the deployment of the Safety Car.

After the track was cleared, Verstappen expertly controlled the restart, maintaining his lead over Leclerc and Sainz, with Hamilton still in fourth place. Pérez, starting from 15th, began his charge through the field, overtaking several drivers to climb up to 10th place.

Technical issues forced Nico Hülkenberg of Haas to retire, triggering the Virtual Safety Car and prompting several drivers to make pit stops for fresh tires. Verstappen and Pérez opted to stay out, allowing Verstappen to retain his lead over Leclerc by a significant margin.

Verstappen eventually made his first pit stop on lap 25, switching to Hard compound tires. However, this allowed Leclerc and Sainz to pass him, resulting in a Ferrari one-two. Verstappen quickly closed the gap overtaking Sainz on lap 26. On the same lap, Pérez pitted, rejoining in tenth place. He swiftly overtook his rivals to climb up to fourth, while Verstappen steadily extended his lead over Sainz. On lap 35, Verstappen made a decisive move on Leclerc, taking the lead once again.

Sainz made his second pit stop on lap 46, allowing Pérez to move up to third. Leclerc made his final pit stop shortly after, promoting Pérez to second place. Verstappen and Pérez made their respective second stops, with Verstappen maintaining his lead and Pérez rejoining in fifth.

In a thrilling battle, Pérez overtook Norris to secure fourth place and then closed in on Sainz, and after an intense struggle, Pérez successfully overtook Sainz to claim the final podium position.

Verstappen continued to dominate at the front, extending his lead over Leclerc. On Lap 70, he pitted for soft tires, setting a blistering final lap time and securing victory, along with the bonus point for the fastest lap. Leclerc finished second, five seconds behind Verstappen, and Pérez completed his impressive recovery drive to take third place.

Sainz finished fourth, followed by Norris, Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Gasly, and Stroll, who secured the final point for Aston Martin.

This was the Seventh win of the season for the Dutch driver, and a ninth win of the season for Red Bull. Lando Norris was voted Driver of the Day by the f1.com fans.

INTERESTING FACT: Ferrari sets a new record with its 800th Podium in Formula 1.

Immediately after the race, Aston Martin contested the results of the race and requested a review by the stewards regarding track limits. A few hours later, the stewards issued a list of infringements by eight drivers, affecting the finishing order, with Carlos Sainz the most affected, dropping from P4 to P6.

The final order was, Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez, Norris, Alonso, Sainz, Russell, Hamilton, Stroll, Gasly, Albon, Zhou, Sargeant, Ocon, Bottas, Piastri, De Vries, Magnussen, and Tsunoda, with Hulkenberg the only DNF of the Grand Prix.

QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM

NEXT RACE: GREAT BRITAIN 🇬🇧