Fans hope for Austrian F1 shake-up
Two-horse race between Lewis and Nico is getting dull
THE FORMULA One show goes on no matter how boring and predictable race outcomes have become under current rules, and teams will again this weekend tippy-toe around the Austrian Red Bull Ring trying to preserve both tyres and fuel.
Of course they’ll be doing this while also attempting to run down Lewis Hamilton’s and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes - the two cars which are best able to balance outright pace with fuel and tyre economy. The Silver Arrows, which dominated last year’s season, have already won six out seven races this year, and will likely continue their form in Spielberg on Sunday, and then for the remaining 11 rounds after that.
The F1 stage’s main attraction has become a Lewis versus Nico show, and unless Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have some aces hidden up their sleeves, the sport’s most devoted followers (legions are opting for other forms of Sunday entertainment) can expect more of the same in Austria. Ferrari has showed some good performance since its recent engine upgrades, setting competitive lap times last time out in Canada where results saw Kimi and Seb finish fourth and fifth respectively. Kimi was also credited with fastest lap.
Valtteri Bottas’ third in Canada could perhaps indicate a turn in pace for Williams, but challenging for actual victories is still too far out of reach for any team other than Merc in normal conditions. Fans hoping for surprise results could pray for rain, but even then Mercedes has proven its wet setup is still the one to beat.
Mercedes has, however, revealed a chink in its armour twice this year when it was caught napping in Malaysia (where Vettel won with a better race strategy) and made a fumble in Monaco (where Hamil- ton’s surefire win was handed to Rosberg with a bad pit stop call). Overconfidence might be Mercedes’ biggest threat.
Red Bull has literally owned this track since 2004 but has never won its home grand prix, primarily because Spielberg was only reinstated to the F1 calendar last year. And you guessed it ... Rosberg took that race too for Mercedes.
The best Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat can hope for this weekend is a double points finish - or even a double finish for that matter. Red Bull’s Renault engine has been both unreliable and uncompetitive this season, and has been the cause of three race retirements so far in 2015.