Category: Practice and Qualifying Analysis

WHAT A QUALIFICATION THIS HAS BEEN! With a lot of drama during the Quali, the climax of Q3 pushed everyone to the edge of their seat. Charles Leclerc, who dominated most of the weekend so far, put his Ferrari on Pole position for tomorrow’s race with a blistering 1:03.003. He also set a new track record for the fastest lap around the Red Bull Ring. Sebastian Vettel had to unfortunately sit out of Q3 due to an engine feed valve issue. Vettel was looking in fine form and a definite contender for Pole today. Mercedes looked a little unsettled with their car as they could not challenge the Ferrari’s for the top step.

POS	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:04.138	1:03.378	1:03.003
2	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:03.818	1:03.803	1:03.262
3	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:03.807	1:03.835	1:03.439
4	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:04.084	1:03.863	1:03.537
5	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:04.778	1:04.466	1:04.072
6	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:04.361	1:04.211	1:04.099
7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:04.615	1:04.056	1:04.166
8	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:04.450	1:04.194	1:04.179
9	Pierre Gasly	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:04.412	1:03.988	1:04.199
10	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:04.340	1:03.667
11	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	1:04.552	1:04.490
12	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	1:04.733	1:04.516
13	Alexander Albon	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	1:04.708	1:04.665
14	Daniel Ricciardo	RENAULT	1:04.647	1:04.790
15	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:04.453	1:13.601
16	Sergio Perez	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	1:04.789
17	Lance Stroll	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	1:04.832
18	Daniil Kvyat	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	1:05.324
19	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:05.904
20	Robert Kubica	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:06.206

Qualification 1 (Q1)

Q1 saw the drivers come out and set their lap times on the board. Leclerc was fastest overall with most of the top teams setting the one lap required to get them through to Q2. Williams of Robert Kubica and George Russell were again the slowest of all, which is becoming a sort of permanent fixture this season. Daniil Kvyat was impeded by Russell on his fast lap and was forced to go off track and ride the curbs before coming on the track again and trying to salvage some lap time. The Russian will be disappointed with the result, he looked in good form coming into the weekend. Lance Stroll has shown very poor one lap pace. He to was knocked out of Q1 for the 10th time in a row I guess. Sergio Perez, his teammate joined him to complete the 5 drivers to be knocked out in Q1. Racing Point are in miserable form right now, a lot of work needs to be done by the team.

Another hot topic was whether or not Hamilton impeded Raikkonen’s fast lap of the session. The British driver was slow going into turn 3 and caught the Finn by surprise. Raikkonen was visibly unhappy, gesticulating wildly at the Brit who when off the track to allow Raikkonen to pass. FIA said it would investigate the incident later.

Qualification 2 (Q2)

Q2 was rather uneventful. The struggling Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were duly knocked out. Albon who will take a grid penalty for his new spec Honda engine couldn’t make it out of Q2. A surprise exit was Carlos Sainz. The McLaren driver was looking in supreme form, but appeared to face some mechanical issues that caused him to be the slowest of the next 5 drivers to be knocked out of Q2.

Qualification 3 (Q3)

The start of Q3 saw the Ferrari mechanics swarming around Sebastian Vettel’s SF90. It was clear that there was a mechanical issue with the Ferrari. The mechanics seemed to be investigating parts of the engine and the floor of the car.

The remaining drivers rolled out to set their fastest timings of the shoot out for pole. The Alpha Romeos seemed to have found some rhythm this weekend with Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen making it to Q3 and finishing 7th and 8th. Leclerc was fastest on the first lap with Bottas and Hamilton right on his tail. Max Verstappen rounded off the top 4. On the final run, Hamilton ran wide into turn 1 and was from there on was about two tenths down on Leclerc’s provisional pole time. He could never really recover and make up for the deficit. Valtteri Bottas finished only 4th as his poor qualifying run continues into Austria. Max Verstappen was able to push his Red Bull to 3rd place on his second lap while his teammate, Gasly, could manage only 9th place. The pressure on Gasly to perform has never been higher. Kevin Magnussen in his Haas, was able to complete a blistering lap to put himself in 5th place. Lando Norris continues his formidable run to slot in 6th. After a poor first sector, Leclerc managed to pull off purples in sector 2 and sector 3. He went faster, setting a track record of 1:03.003! The issue with Vettel was far more complicated and he did not set a time. Vettel will start 10th in tomorrow’s race, a real shame considering that Ferrari were looking very formidable. Ferrari will now look to handle the challenge of Max Verstappen, and converting Leclerc’s pole to his first F1 victory and to play the right strategy calls to put Seb back up the order.

The battle for pole position in the coming Quali rounds is really heating up. Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari leads, Hamilton, Bottas and teammate Sebastian Vettel. All the drivers are separated by a thin margin of a tenth and few hundredths of a second. I think the dramatic pace of Leclerc’s Ferrari have really caught the Mercedes garage off guard. Hamilton and Bottas were squirming around for extra grip, finding none. Even though Vettel is 4th, he is well known for his one lap pace, especially in Q3. Vettel could use this experience to displace current favorite Leclerc to put his Ferrari on pole. Either ways, it’s anyone’s game right now.

The lap times in FP3 are already very close to that of last year’s pole lap of Valtteri Bottas which was a 1:03.264 s . The cars this year are as fast as they have ever been with track records being smashed race after race. Could F1 really see a sub 1 minute lap in the near future? The thought of it just blows my mind.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:03.987		18
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:04.130	+0.143s	21
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:04.221	+0.234s	23
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:04.250	+0.263s	20
5	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:04.446	+0.459s	18
6	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:04.986	+0.999s	19
7	10	Pierre Gasly	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:05.152	+1.165s	15
8	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:05.219	+1.232s	22
9	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:05.336	+1.349s	17
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	1:05.391	+1.404s	25

Lower down the order Max Verstappen and teammate Pierre Gasly are about +0.4 s down on the leaders pace, making them an unlikely challenger for the pole. Interestingly the McLaren of Lando Norris splits the two Red Bulls. Looks like McLaren are really challenging the Red Bull’s, who seem to be facing some engine and power lag. In France Sainz was wheel to wheel and nearly ahead of Max at the start of the race. Interesting developments for the English outfit and definitely good for the sport. Giovanazzi and Daniil Kvyat round up the top 10. Hulkenberg and Albon are taking grid penalties for new engines. Renault looked strong in FP1, but are sliding down the order. Hopefully atleast one driver will make it out of Q2 and challenge the midfield.

The ISSUE of the CUrbs(or KERBS)

Since last year the Red Bull ring features some new extra sausage curbs. The sausage curbs are meant to be natural penalties or deterrents for the drivers that go off the track and rejoin the race. The sausage curbs ensure that the FIA does not have to investigate/penalize every incident. However the curbs have been wrecking havoc among the drivers with none of them showing any signs of adapting to the new curbs. Lance Stroll has had a particular problem, breaking his front wing 3 times now. Hamilton, Hulkenberg have also been victims to the curb issue. The particular problem seems to be in turn 1 where the late braking due to the uphill nature of the turn causes the drivers to overshoot the tack and straight onto the curbs causing a) damage to the car or b) Loss of lap time. The last corner also features the added sausage curb which has troubled Lance Stroll. The FIA has been exploring these mechanisms of sausage curbs, bollards and grass/gravel to naturally penalize the drivers for their mistakes. They worked well in Barcelona on the final turn, with the drivers making use of the curb, in fact to maintain their entry speed into the corner. However this is not a fool proof mechanism as the French GP highlighted. Sergio Perez, who went off the track, drove around the bollards but still received a penalty for gaining a position advantage. Red Bull team principle Christian Horner has reported that the new curbs in Austria have already cost the team $250,00 in damages. These techniques have been a strong yet brutal way of penalizing drivers as the corners now have greater run off areas. This is going to be a contentious and hotly debated topic after the race.

With the heat wave gripping the better part of Europe, Austria was no exception to the unnatural weather phenomenon. The track temperatures soared close to 30 degrees. The forecasts say that temperatures will not drop over the course of the weekend, the teams will look towards the harder compounds with tyre degradation being the talk of the weekend.

Free PRactice 1

Free practice 1 (FP1) saw Valtteri Bottas sit out for the better part of the session due to an oil leak. The Finn was forced to replace his new engine with his Spec 2 engine. He went on to set an unhappy third fastest lap, stating the balance did not feel right. His teammate set the fastest time of FP1 on the soft compounds. Hamilton damaged his front wing riding high on the sausage curb. This was repetitive feature of the day with many driver taking damage to their floors and front wings. Ferrari were impressive with Vettel going second fastest, but on mediums. Ferrari will take this as a positive coming from a mediocre French GP. Teammate Leclerc went 4th fastest also on the mediums. The Monogasque too complained of floor damage, however the data showed it was okay. Red Bull had a decent day in the field.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:04.838		34
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:04.982	+0.144s	23
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:04.999	+0.161s	37
4	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:05.141	+0.303s	26
5	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:05.260	+0.422s	30
6	10	Pierre Gasly	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:05.378	+0.540s	30
7	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:05.502	+0.664s	34
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RENAULT	1:05.846	+1.008s	27
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:05.876	+1.038s	27
10	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:06.125	+1.287s	27

Both McLaren’s again finished in the top 10 continuing to impress. They have really got their new design to work well, combined with the drivers, the results are exceptional for a team that was consistently rated slowest last year. Daniel Ricciadro again impresses with the Renault while his teammate bringing out the red flag, tearing apart the left half of the front wing. Racing Point F1 are really losing shape with the newly christened team, second slowest of the pack ahead of the Williams.

Free practice 2

Free Practice 2 (FP2) was a whole lot more interesting. The session saw two red flags brought out but the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Both drivers saw a big off and a crash into the barriers. Bottas had a 23G impact decimating his front, while Max spun out and conking his rears, possibly inflicting engine damage. Vettel too had a spin into the gravel but the German could bring his Ferrari to a halt just in the nick of time, with no damage to his car. Bottas, Verstappen and Vettel weren’t the only drivers to have issues, with Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, all going either wide or on a ride through the gravel trap.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:05.086		37
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:05.417	+0.331s	12
3	10	Pierre Gasly	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:05.487	+0.401s	33
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:05.529	+0.443s	43
5	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:05.545	+0.459s	44
6	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	1:05.701	+0.615s	38
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:05.728	+0.642s	37
8	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:05.871	+0.785s	34
9	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:05.879	+0.793s	13
10	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:05.952	+0.866s	48

FP2 is more representative of the race conditions and the teams focused on the longer runs. Charles Leclerc was fastest in his Ferrari. It is possible that Ferrari can benefit from the conditions and bridge the gap to the two Mercedes. Despite the off, Bottas slotted in second, and Gasly completing the top three. Hamilton struggled to cope with the conditions came in 4th. Vettel with his spin could finish only 8th. McLaren again putting up a strong show with the Haas of Romain Grosjean and Alpha Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen finishing up the top 10.

The biggest losers in FP2 were Renault who slipped down the pecking order due to an unstable DRS wing. Racing Point F1 continued their struggles, with Stroll crucially being just a few tenths ahead of the Williams.

Bake is already living up to it’s name. It’s been a crazy Friday with 3 red flags already in Practice. This is just the start of what’s to come in the next couple days.

Free Practice 1

To the shock of many Free Practice 1 was first red flagged and the scrapped entirely. The red flag was brought out by Williams rookie George Russell. It appears that the Williams car sucked open a welded down manhole cover when going down the main straight. Later replays showed that the manhole was dislodged by Charles Lelerc who went over the cover. Leclerc powered down the straight while poor George Russell had to bear the brunt of the blow. The floor of the Williams appeared to be badly damaged with large amounts of carbon fiber debris flying onto the track. The session was immediately red flagged as the marshals began to clear the debris and check the other manhole covers around the circuit. The dislodging of the cover has ended races in the past for many drivers and poses a real threat to the drivers and races. This enraged the drivers and many calling the situation unacceptable to say the least.

This was only part of the problems as the crane carrying the Williams crashed into an over hanging bridge like structure. The collision caused the oil from the crane to leak out and straight onto the Williams car below and on the track. The plethora of rising problems saw the scrapping of Free Practice. No laptimes were set other than the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. Leclerc was fastest setting a time 1:49.497 and Vettel set a 1:49.598. Vettel was +2.101 seconds off of his teammates pace, presumably caught out by the red flag. Both laptimes were set on the Medium compound of tyres.

The incident left little to be analyzed from the session.

Free Practice 2

With the issues in FP 1 resolved, Free Practice 2 was given the green light. FP 2 saw 2 red flags, the first brought out by Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and the next brought out by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Both drivers went into the barriers.

The Ferrari’s put on a dominant display with Vettel and Leclerc swapping top positions and challenging each other to go faster. Leclerc ended the session on top with a staggering 1:42.872, Vettel was about +0.324s off of his teammates pace by the end, setting a 1:43.196. The Mercedes were about +0.6s of the pace with Hamilton finishing 3rd and Bottas 5th. The Red Bulls have used the MGU-K, MGU-H and turbocharger from the new spec by Honda, but not the main internal combustion engine, still face a deficit in pace as Verstappen finished the session 4th. +0.9 seconds off Leclerc’s pace. Gasly’s woes continue as he finished a distant 9th +1.3s off the pace. Red Bull is known to make rapid and shocking changes from time to time. Could Red Bull promote the likes of Albon and Kvyat to the A team after losing patience over Gasly’s performance in the next few races? That’s something speculative but Dr. Marko and Christian Horner , we’re watching out for you!

The McLaren’s seem to be on a path of resurgence as both drivers finish in the top 10, Sainz finishing 7th and rookie Norris finishing 10th. Toro Rosso also put in a strong performance with Kvyat going best of the rest, finishing 6th before his crash towards the end of the session and Albon finishing a respectable 8th. The Thai driver continues to ride high after his spectacular drive in China. Racing Point, Renault and Alpha Romeo seemed to struggle as they were all about +2s off Leclerc’s pace. Then again one can cut them some slack with the red flags throwing everything into a frenzy

Verdict

Ferrari seemed to have done the impossible. I had theorized that the only way Ferrari could catch up with Mercedes was with a new aero package for the race. Ferrari flaunted a new rear wing for the race and the package, consisting of new barge boards as well, seems to be paying off as Leclerc and Vettel battled it out for the top times in FP2. Their pace seems to suggest that we can see a tight qualifying tomorrow. Their Quali set up can be evaluated in the FP3 and the results of FP3 will be indicative of the standings in Quali. But with this raw pace we can see Ferrari locking out the front row and Mercedes close behind. Will Leclerc take pole again? Vettel will have to throw in everything as he’ll have to push hard to undo the reputation he’s developed and cloud of doubt surrounding him over the past few races. Vettel was on pole last year after a blistering Q3 lap. The midfield will be tight but looks like Toro Rosso and McLaren will be the best of the rest, unless Renault were sandbagging today. The Renaults used up all their available sets for FP2 and and to retire a little earlier than expected. The teams and drivers complained of the track being dusty and lacking grip. We could see the teams going for the 2 stop strategy trying to maximize grip levels by using the grippier soft tyres. Teams will look to end Q3 with softs so that they can start the race on the same set, switch to mediums and the softs to the end of the race with an eye on the extra point for the fastest lap. Teams might even go for the hard tyre to extend their second stint, but this seems a little unlikely.