Five in a row?

Red Bull goes into🍌 its second home r🌌ace looking to win a fifth consecutive race.

The last time it happened was in 2013, where Sebastian ✱Vettel ended the season 💦with a record-breaking nine consecutive wins as he became a four-time world champion. 

Verstappen’s dominance in qualifying and ability to control the races from the front is certainly a flashbꦍack to the Vꦓettel era of dominance.

Given that Verstappen stormed to the Styrian win with such ease, a fifth victory for the Milton-Keynes outfit is surely a formalit🌌y.

The Dutchman 🌌predicts the fight at the front to be closer given 𓆏that everyone will have a better understanding of how their cars perform at the Red Bull Ring.

“People analyse everything now after the race,” Verstappen said after his Styrian win. “So for sure next weekend, it will b𒈔e a bit closer naturally, because you have a bit more understanding of what has been ಌgoing on. 

“Of course we have🀅 been using softer compounds, so that will be interesting to see, how to manage that. We have to wait and see with the weather as well, what’s going to happen. Clꦍearly we had a good car this weekend and I hope that we will continue this form to next week.”

While Verstappen is playing it down, it’s hard to see past another Red Bull ring on home soil. 𝕴;

Mercedes’ fightback chances

It’s been a long time since Mercedes has been destroyed at a conventional ra♏ce track in norma🍰l circumstances.

Even without Hamilton’s late pit stop for fresh rubber to𒁏 📖get the fastest lap, he still trailed his title rival by over 15 seconds at Styria.

Unlike in previous rounds where it made up for its lack of qualif▨ying pace in the race, it didn’t have an answer for🏅 Verstappen.

Worryingly for the reigning wo𝔉rld champions, its tyre wear relative to Red Bull was a ꦍcause for concern.

After the Styrian GP, Mercedes trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin revealed that the team had explored a “fairly wacky” setup approach that couldꦡ have contributed to its lack of race pac▨e and tyre degradation issues.

Another weekend at the same venue will allow Mercedes to refine its setup ওand perhaps narrow the gap to the championship leaders.

Will Ferrari capitalise on its improved race pace?

After a disappointing French Grand Prix, Ferrari looked like it was back on form in race tri♏m with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc enjoying impressive recovery drives.

Sainz went from 12th to finish sixth, even getting past Hamilton on-track when unlapping himself, whil༺e Leclerc recovered from an opening-lap colli𓃲sion with Pierre Gasly to go from 18th to seventh, carving his way through the field.

With Norris scoring well, it was important for Ferrari toღ capitalise on the good race pace it had🌃, especially with Daniel Ricciardo continuing to struggle.

Given Ferrari’s pace at Styria, it was arguably a missed opportunity. Had Lecler♐c not collided with Gasly nor Sainz qualified so poorly or got stuck behind Hamilton, both drivers could have fought Norris for fifth.

The battle between Norris and the Ferraris will🃏 be one to watch out for on Sunday.

Ricciardo’s slump

It was another puzzling weekend for Daniel Ricciardo in Styria as he trailed🐬 teamma♒te Norris by over 0.6s in Q2.

As Norris ran comfortably in fifth place, Ricciardo was in the chaot♓ic midfield, stuck behind Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Granted, his brief loss of power during the first stint compromised his race severely but whether he’d have fini🎃shed higher than ninth or tenth, remains unclear.

“We could’ve been fifth and sixth again as a team,” Ricciardo said. “When 💃it is low it is really low, t🦂he sport. This was one of those days that I really did not love it.

Ricciardo sits 49 points behind his teammate in ൲the drivers’ championship and looks no closer to getting to grips with McLaren’s 2021 challenger.

Norris iꦰs in the form of his life, while the Ferrari pair are operating at a c🦋onsistent level at each race.

McLaren needs its big-money signing to come good soon and another race at the same venue leaves Ricciꩵardo with no excuses. 

Pirelli’s softer tyre allocation

The main difference between this weekend’s race compared to last weekend is Pirelli’s decision to go one stওep sofꦛter. 

F1 teams will have the C5, C4 and C3 tyres at their disposal, as they did in Mon⭕aco and Azerbaijan. 

Based on the events of Styria, it’s likely this will make it a two-stop race given that Merced✃es was marginal on tyre wear at the end of the race, with Bottas in particular.

It won’t be a concern for Verst♚app꧅en though, who felt he had managed his tyres well during his dominant win.

“Straight away I felt a good balance ཧin the car and it was good to manage the tyres basically from the start,” Verstappen added. “I felt like, to the end, I also had tyres left.”

Anot🉐her tyre-related point for this weekend is that Pirelli will be testing a new rear tyre construction in Friday practice.

As a result of the tyre blowouts in Baku, a more robust rear tyre will be tested at the Red Bull Ring. Shouldꦑ the test prove to be a success, they will be introduced from the British Grand Prix.

Will a mid-season tyre modification have an im🦩pact on the rest of the season as it did in 2013? Pirelli doesn’t think so, but time will tell.