F1 heads to Austria: Preview

We have come off a great weekend of motorsport, and a great win for Porsche at Le Mans. Not only that it was the first win for a current F1 driver in 24 years with Nico Hulkenberg having the opportunity to drive outside of his Force India duties. We have to remember that Fernando Alonso wanted to drive that car too, and wasn’t allowed by the hierarchy at McLaren and Honda, what an even bigger story that would have been if the popular Spaniard had been in the car!

It should spice up the driver market for 2016 nicely though, with the German raising his profile after his win. Always the nearly man, Hulkenberg could be on the list of many of the teams still recruiting drivers for next year, and 2016 could just be his year. The biggest seat possibly available is at Ferrari, with question marks still hanging over Kimi Raikkonen. Despite constant praise from boss Arrivabene although contract hasn’t been signed leaving the door open for others. Valtteri Bottas had been linked to Ferrari, but Hulkenberg who was beaten to the seat by Kimi Raikkonen before could also be in with a chance.

Austria shouldn’t throw up too many curve balls, after last year we should expect similar form to Canada. Mercedes look in even more dominant form than they did last year, with Williams wavering slightly, so don’t expect them to take pole again this year. That being said, they should be more competitive in Austria, and could be the second fastest tea. Also expect many of the Mercedes powered teams to do well as we saw in Canada, both Lotus and Force India made good progress on the fast track.

With many upgrades bought to Canada, expect the trend to continue, especially in the preceding test on Tuesday and Wednesday which is the final test of the year, quite a bit earlier than in previous years with a young driver test at Silverstone. Force India are expected to be bringing a ‘B-Spec’ car to Austria, with McLaren also bringing a raft of updates including a new shorter nose. Ron Dennis predicted in Canada that things would look a lot brighter for the team post Austria, and the test will be important for the team. Manor had been expected to bring a new car to Spa later in the year, but rumours have suggested they are now putting their energy into a 2016 car, rather than a new car at the latter end of this year.

#f1 #austria