This weekend, we find ourselves in one of the most beautiful countries on the 2015 calendar: Austria. After a quick visit, the sport of Formula One has returned to Europe; the place in which they will stay for the next five rounds of the 2015 season. Austria is a place full of culture and marvelous scenery. We saw rain in the early sessions this weekend and that may the case in the race. The Sunday weather looks to be relatively dry, until the race starts. Rain is expected to start around noon and continue for about seven hours.
Austria made its return to the Formula One season calendar in 2014 and is the shortest track on the calendar, in regards to lap times, with a lap being only a little bit over a minute long. Drivers will spend roughly half of the lap running the car at full throttle. The chance of a safety car in Austria is extremely high, so it is likely that the safety car will make at least one appearance during the course of the day. The grid in last year’s race was a bit shuffled, with Hamilton starting from ninth position after failing to set a lap time in the final qualifying session. Despite this poor turn of events, he was able to charge his way through the field and claim the second step of the podium. The grid isn’t as shaken up this time, as Lewis Hamilton claims another pole position, meaning that he has earned every pole position so far this season, with the exception of Spain.
The topic of discussion so far this season has been a bit of technical changes for McLaren. Both drivers have been given massive grid place penalties of 20 places or more, due to some changes to the engines. This gives McLaren the perfect opportunity to run a new nose. During practice, we saw Fernando Alonso’s car equipped with a nose that looks very similar to the Williams nose. It’s expected that that Jenson Button will be running the nose during the race, since Alonso’s electrical issue in free practice one limited the amount of testing laps done with the new aero package. If this indeed happens, Button will take another penalty.
As for the race results, the top players should remain about the same as we saw in the previous rounds of the championship. Hamilton will start from pole once again, with Nico Rosberg right alongside. Because there is so much full throttle on this circuit, it will be very difficult for another car to keep up with the Mercedes car. For that reason, you would think that the team should have the top two steps of the podium wrapped up. However, there is a new player knocking on the door. Sebastian Vettel has set times in his Ferrari that are equally as good as the Mercedes’. He found himself leading both free practice two and three. He appears to perform great in the rain, a skill that could play in his favour if the weather predictions are correct. Another important statistic to remember is that the chances of a driver winning from the pole in Austria are significantly lower than at other circuits. This was of course the case in 2014. It is tough to predict the winner, especially when the weather conditions are possible. However, it looks as though Vettel has the best chance of taking home the victory in Austria.
As for second and third positions, that is a battle between the two Mercedes drivers. In qualifying, the pair were rather close, with only 0.2 seconds separating them in the final qualifying session. However, Rosberg was faster than Hamilton in the first two qualifying sessions by a much larger gap. For this reason, Rosberg will probably swap places with Hamilton before the race is over, putting himself on the second step of the podium and Hamilton down a step.
Normally, you would think that the two Williams cars will claim the fourth and fifth position, but this weekend could be a bit different. Starting from fifth position on the grid is Nico Hülkenberg. Hülkenberg has just returned from a rather successful weekend at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he took the victory in his Le Mans debut. This seems to have given him some magical powers, as he was able to perform better than usual in the free practice sessions and qualifying. This is all despite the fact that he is running a Force India. The car seems to be a great performer at this track and should be capable of at least fourth position with the right pilot. Hülkenberg has shown us that he is the right pilot. Being one of the more underestimated drivers in the current lineup, a win in such a prestigious event could be just what he needs to final get some recognition from bigger teams, not only in Formula One, but in motorsport in general.
Valtteri Bottas had a faster car than his teammate, Felipe Massa, in qualifying and it was poor luck that put him in sixth on the grid. For the entire weekend, he has been right with Massa and has been able to show us exactly how much pace he has. Passing a teammate with an identical car is not an easy thing to do and team orders often come into play, but Bottas should have no problem getting that fifth position from Massa. He has done it in the previous rounds and there is no reason that he can’t do it again.
Best of luck to all of the teams and drivers. Let’s hope that we have an entertaining and safe race in Austria. The fans in Austria are unique and really love their Formula One, so let’s not disappoint them.
