Can Ferrari disrupt Red Bull’s homecoming by ending their unbeaten F1 streak?
Can Ferrari disrupt Red Bull’s homecoming?
Despite failing to make the most of their improved turn of pac🃏e at the 𓂃Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Ferrari left Canada with renewed hope for the rest of the season.
While they were beaten by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen,168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lewis Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso on the day, the two Ferraris enjoyed strong recoveries from 10th and 11♏th on the grid.
Not only did Ferrari show impressive race pace, easily keeping Sergio Perez at bay, even on worn tyres when they stayed out under the168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Safety Car, they remained in touch with the leading trio.
Ferrari’s pace was so strong that Red Bull’s Helmut Marko reckoned the Italian tea🅺m had the fastest car in Montreal.
After the race, he proclaimed: “I have🀅 to say, ꦉthank God Ferrari had to start so far back, because they were actually the fastest on both compounds.”
Maybe it was a false dawn…
It was very difficult to get tyres up to temperature in Montreal given the long straights and🍸 lack of high-lo🅺ad corners.
One strength of the Ferrari this year, evidenced by their qualifying pace relative to race pace, is how quick they can get tಌheir tyres up to temperature.
This was a key element to𝐆 their turnaround in Montreal and perhaps was a missed opportuni🍬ty given their underperformance in qualifying.
Two factors that could play into their hands this weekend is that it’s the venue Ferrari last won at, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc taking his most recent win.
Austria also sees the re💞t🧜urn of the sprint format.
Ferrari enjoyed their best weekend of the year when the sprint forma♏t was last used in Azerbaijan as Leclerc took pole for both races before securing the team’s only p🧔odium of the year so far.
Who knows, maybe Fer🌸rari will finally piece the whole weekend together and take the fight﷽ to Red Bull?
Perez among drivers under the most pressure
The second Red Bull of Perez has endured a torrid run of the races, f🍸ailing to reach Q3 in the last three consecutive qualifying sessions.
He’s not finished on 𒊎the podium since the Mia💛mi Grand Prix at the beginning of March - it’s nearly July.
His shocking run of form, in an incredibly dominant car, has seen him slip to 69 points behind t🍬eammate Ve❀rstappen.
Mౠore worryingly, Perez is just nine points ahead of Alonso in the ba♒ttle for second.
The problem for Perez was that during his first two years with Rℱed Bull, his form suffered during the European leg of the season in both campaigns before picking up again.
F1 has a run of six European races, and durin꧃g his time with Red Bull, Perez has finished on the podium just once (2022 Belgium) at any of the six upcoming ve♒nues.
Combined with the prospect of wet weather thi🌺s weekend, it could be another difficult one for the Mexican.
There is mounting pressure on 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nyck de Vries amid speculation that 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Daniel Ricciardo would be keen to make a return with AlphaTauri.
Logan Sargean𒆙t’s form has been on a downward curve since showing glimpses of pace early on in Bahrain and Azer𓆉baijan.
One of Hamilton’s worst tracks?
It’s hard to criticise someone who has enjoyed the plethora of success Hamilton has had over the y🐼ears.
Even at the Red Bull Ring, he’s won twice before, and took one of the best pole positions of his F1 career in treacherous cond🔯itions by 1.2s in 2020.
But it’s probably fair to say that Austria is one of Hamilton’s weaker🍃 tracks𝓰.
In qualifying (against Nico Rosberg, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Valtteri Bottas and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell), Hamilton is 7-4 down in the head-to-hea🔴d in 🌌Austria.
Two of his qualifying wins, over Rosberg in 2016 and B𒅌ottas in 2020, came in either changeable conditions or the wet.
In the races, he’s 6-4 down in the head-to-head compared to his respective t🅷eammates.
As previously mentioned, he won in 2016 and then the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix, while he finished third - ahౠead of Russell, who had an incident with Perez - aꦯt last year’s event.
Given we have Silverstone and Budpaest coming up - two of Hamilton’s fav✅ourites, on balance, it’s fair to say Austria isn’t one of his best.
Sprints are back
F1’s sp🍌rint fo♏rmat makes its second appearance of 2023 in Austria this weekend.
The revised form🍷atཧ will appear six times this year as organisers attempt to spice up the show.
As per the original sprint schedule which was introduced i🍨n 2021, qualifying will take place directly after Friday practice.
However, a major change forᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ this year was the addition of a second qualifying session 💖which would decide the grid for the sprint race on Saturday.
On paper this was a good move as it means drivers wouldn’t have to worry about affecting their Sunday chances by taking unnecessary risk and potentially ruining th💜eir grid position.
But, the new format means there’s a real disconnect during the weekend with Saturday’s action simply bein🔯g less relevant or important, reducing the crescendo of a conventional grand prix weekend.
Qualifying on a Friday is a big positive, but if F1 want to conওtinue with this format, there surely needs to be further tweaks.
Let’s see how it goes this weekend.
With a𒐪 sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased ༺reporting.
