Red Bull dominance and Russell to score - What to expect from the Austrian Grand Prix

verstappen celebrates his win in Austria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

Red Bull dominance and Russell to score - What to expect from the Austrian Grand Prix

Verstappen will aim to strecth Red Bull's winning streak to five races

Ewan Gale

Friday 2 July 2021 09:29

F1 makes an immediate return to the Red Bull Ring for the second of two races in the Styrian hills, this time for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen took victory in dominant fashion last week to give Red Bull success at its home circuit, with Mercedes rounding out the podium.

Ferrari recovered from its shocking performance in France to keep McLaren on its toes, who again had Lando Norris to thank for another virtuoso performance to finish as best of the rest.

So after a dress rehearsal, of sorts, what should we expect this weekend?

Verstappen walk in the park again

I wrote last week that anything other than a Verstappen victory would be hard to imagine. Well, that was cemented in stunning fashion by the Dutchman.

The margin of victory may well have been skewed by Lewis Hamilton's late pit stop to achieve the fastest lap of the race but a gap of 18 seconds prior to that does nothing to enthuse Mercedes ahead of the second instalment at the Red Bull Ring.

Article continues under video

The rain that could have been the Silver Arrows' salvation never showed until post-race and it took only a Red Bull pit stop issue to ensure Valtteri Bottas stood on the third podium spot ahead of Sergio Perez.

With Red Bull displaying better tyre management and less degradation, the softer tyres nominated by Pirelli for this weekend threatens to only widen the gap by the end of Sunday's race. More Mercedes pain is surely in store.

Points for Williams at last

If last weekend was anything to go by, Williams should break its two-year F1 points duck this weekend.

George Russell was supreme, qualifying just 0.008secs adrift of a spot in the Q3 top-10 shoot-out before jumping to eighth in the early stages of the race.

The British driver was hounding Fernando Alonso for seventh before an engine gremlin cut short his race but nevertheless, the signs of improvement from Williams were astonishing.

Nicholas Latifi must not be forgotten either, after narrowly missing out on a spot in Q2 and having his race affected by Pierre Gasly on lap one, causing a puncture.

The Canadian has proven his ability to drag the Williams to dangerous positions in races of high attrition, finishing 11th on three occasions in his rookie season last year.

Williams, all of a sudden, is starting to look quite handy.

Ricciardo redemption

What could have been for the Australian last weekend. Another miserable Saturday threatened to derail the progress Ricciardo had made in Paul Ricard.

Yet a marvellous first lap in Spielberg righted the wrongs of qualifying, promoting Ricciardo into eighth and on the offensive against Alonso.

Just a few laps later, however, a mysterious drop in power saw him plummet back down the order behind all those he had overtaken.

The McLaren driver now has the chance to take his learnings into qualifying and attack the timesheets. Anything other than a points finish for Ricciardo after seeing his performance early on last Sunday would be a huge shock.

Strategy to play its hand

With the softest compounds in the Pirelli range available for teams this week, a two-stop race looks a certainty for many.

The question is, who will try something different and attempt a one-stop strategy? We saw teams try this in Barcelona, with those in the midfield unable to hold off the advances of those on a two-stopper.

The same can be said of the French Grand Prix with Verstappen's charge through the top four for victory, although Hamilton held on in Bahrain on the one-stop option.

Weekends like the one upcoming is where the strategic know-it-alls earn the money they so richly deserve.

Austrian rain has a second chance

Okay, so the rain that looked a certainty to disrupt proceedings last week let us all down on all three days but everyone - and everything - deserves a second chance, right?

The weather forecast for the circuit is dry as it stands although there is a lot of heavy weather in the hills surrounding the Red Bull Ring.

It would not be the biggest surprise of the season if there was a smattering of rainfall on race day, but every other session looks as if it will run unaffected by the weather.

That is good news for Pirelli, who is conducting a tyre test with the teams to try out a new specification of rear tyre ahead of potential implementation at the British Grand Prix.