After finally recovering from the sleep annual event high speed sleep deprivation that is the 24 hours of Le Mans last weekend, it is time to prepare for the next date on the motorsport calendar. It also makes for a nice distraction from all this football that appears to be going on for some reason - admittedly I've seen a grand majority of the matches thus far, simply because it is a rather large international event, just like the Olympics. Yet nine times out of ten the players constantly find ways of being less endearing to the casual observer. It does seem that football is about deceiving the officials and cheating more than it is about scoring goals, but never mind. However as the US appear to be strongest followers of this corners of the internet kudos to them on winning at football without trying to pick up the ball and run off the edge of the field.
Before I risk isolating the only audience I have left (which may only be made up of search engine crawling tools), it is time to move on. This weekend marks the return of the Austrian GP at the A1 ring (...I know it is now the 'Red Bull' ring, but old habits die hard). It may seem odd with the rumours of curtailing the European season to make room for tracks in Mexico and New Jersey in the future we find ourselves in Austria. Well there is one reason for that... money! just like the inclusion of two races in Germany to ride the commercial wave of the Schumacher era, and the same with Spain when Alonso was in form. Now we have investment from a quadruple constructors champion team effectively buying a home GP and a space on the calendar.
The Venue
There are mixed feelings about the return of the A1 Ring, mostly positive because it is a track which strength lies in its simplicity and effectiveness. But online forums and comments are a wash with people having no knowledge of the Austrian GP due to the time they've been following the sport...does make me seem even older. Then these new teams post their previews of a 'new and unexplored race track'... sigh... The track configuration remains the same as it was back then, which in turn is a shortened version of a track which pre-dates me by a fair few seasons. But the most frightening part of it is that the shortened lap was performed by a certain Mr Herman Tilke, the same man that neutered the Hokkenheimring and has committed a raft of crimes against circuit design since. Given his current design record it does make you wonder why this one turned out so well, without the unnatural amount of corners and excessively long straights.
In total there are only 9 corners in a lap which should only take around 66 seconds to complete - it will be interesting to see the time differences across that 11 year void. The first of these corners is very nice, a steep climb into a blind medium speed right hander... where I suspect the fight over track limits will take place. After a reasonably long straight there is turn two, a sharp hairpin at the highest point of the track, which will be the primary overtaking spot. It is a corner where racing legend Gaston Mazzacane parked his F3000 car on top of another in the braking zone, from that moment he was definitely marked for greatness.
A difficult downhill braking zone tries to drag you wide of the apex of turn three - expect many lock-ups and cars running wide here, turn four isn't really a corner and merely directs the cars into the infield section. This is a sequence of three of the higher speed corners the track has to offer and it the flattest part of the lap. Back on the old F1 video games it was these corners and turn three that proved to be the most bother. To think how far my sim setup has advanced since then, I do hope the gravel traps remain on the outside of turns 5-7, as they were those years ago.
Turn 8 was another corner that was a real pain on the old consoles but in a more adept model is brilliant. It is like the polar opposite of turn one as the track vanishes down the other side of a crest right in the braking zone. Just like turn three the road plummets downhill as you attempt to find the apex. Finally turn nine arrives mere moments after getting it all sorted out on the exit of turn 8. It is another medium speed corner which despite having the pit-entry wall on the inside and a narrow section of road (at least it was then) is quite open with lots of room on the exit. Some of the photos from today suggest there is considerably less gravel in the final sector than there used to be... it wasn't broken, why fix it... but the undulating topography and interesting corner variety should be as good as it was... ah the nostalgia.
The Form Guide
Less than half of the grid has competed on the track, both in it's previous incarnation as the A1 Ring and under the current branding in lower formulae. But it is short and simple enough for those drivers who are new to the track to get up to speed fairly quickly, so the three drivers who competed in the final race here in 2003 won't have a particular advantage. In fact Alonso himself said he doesn't remember too much from that race - probably because the Renault he was driving broke down. Raikkonen was the highest placed of the finishers on the Austrian GP's former running for McLaren finishing second behind Schumacher.
This time around it should be another walkover for Mercedes - barring and more failures like they encountered in Canada. It is a track characterised by straights and traction zones - perfect Mercedes territory - the three corners in the middle of the lap will be where Red Bull can make up some time, but I doubt it will be enough. Just like in Canada, Williams and Force India will be involved alongside Ferrari and right behind Red Bull in chasing the two Mercedes cars out front. Somewhere towards the back of this scrum for third place we'll find the McLaren drivers fighting off the attentions of the Toro Rosso squad on the outer fringe of the points paying positions.
If Lotus can bring a car capable of completing enough laps, then there may be an outside chance of a point for Grosjean and possibly Malonado as this might be the sort of track he can match Romain on. If they do keep running then they should in all reality be ahead of Sauber who are having major difficulties at the moment with performance in the battle to see who can finish ahead of the bottom two teams.
After the highs of Monaco and the lows of Canada - Marussia may find themselves back on neutral ground this weekend. Loitering around the back marginally in front of Caterham who are in similar performance strife to Sauber, struggling to get on terms with their immediate rivals. While the Austrian GP has the potential for a bit of contact and incident up and down the grid, I doubt there will be enough attrition to ease anyone from the lower reaches up into the points.
It is nice to see the A1 Ring back on the calendar when other older venues have slipped away in recent years - the likes of Magny Cours and Imola being two prime examples. In the past it has produced some entertaining racing, as well as some events of a poorer quality - even if this rejuvenation is only on the cards due to a big pile of money from a certain Austrian drinks manufacturer to be used as a big marketing sign. For the home team it is a shame that the likelihood of a second win for their very cheery Australian is very unlikely.
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