F1's old new circuit: What to expect

While the Red Bull Ring retains the track configuration last used by Formula 1 in 2003, given the 11-year gap this is, effectively, a new race.

The first day of running threw up few surprises, with Mercedes dominating, but it does offer us a few hints of what to expect in qualifying and the race.

Gary Anderson: "I've had experience of this place both in its original form as the Osterreichring and the A1-Ring in the late 1990s and early 2000s and it always produced interesting races.

"If you look at the lap, it's very short, effectively eight corners, so it feels like there aren't so many chances to overtake. But as it's a 71-lap race, that's how many cracks you get at the best passing places into Turn 1 and Turn 2.

"At Turn 1, it's easy enough to follow someone through there - although the addition of the sausage kerb on the outside means you have to be careful - and the way that the road dips means you can dive to the inside and get stopped and pull off a block pass.

"And it will be interesting to see if the FIA's willingness to be a bit more lenient on racing accidents encourages drivers to attack more.

"It seems a simple circuit, but it's very tricky. You need good traction and good rear grip, so you will lose time if they go off and that will help overtaking. There's also a lot of uphill and downhill braking zones, which take a lot of adapting to, so you have to be good on your brake balance and confident enough to adjust your braking."

STRATEGY

Two stops look like to most likely strategy for Sunday © LAT

Friday practice suggested that the par strategy for this race would be a two-stopper.

On average, the super-soft is about six-tenths faster than the soft over a qualifying lap, so that will be the tyre of choice on Saturday afternoon.

Much of the field should start on that tyre, and if temperatures are higher than today, as expected, Pirelli predicts perhaps a first stint of around 10-12 laps, then two further stints on the soft.

Gary Anderson: "It definitely looks like a two-stopper. Perhaps you could try doing a super-soft stint, then a long soft stint and try to use the pace of the super-softs at the end as a gamble. But the normal approach will be super-soft/soft/soft."

RAW PACE

Every driver set their fastest time of the day using super-soft rubber during the afternoon session. Here's how the car pace shakes out:

 1. Mercedes     1m09.542s                   
 2. Ferrari      +0.928s                     
 3. Williams     +0.977s                     
 4. Red Bull     +1.265s                     
 5. McLaren      +1.271s                     
 6. Toro Rosso   +1.430s                     
 7. Force India  +1.754s                     
 8. Sauber       +1.949s                     
 9. Lotus        +2.223s                     
10. Marussia     +2.687s                     
11. Caterham     +3.395s                     

As has often been the case in 2014, this suggests a tight scrap for best of the rest in qualifying, with Ferrari and Williams in the thick of it. The question is whether Red Bull didn't show its full pace?

Gary Anderson: "Watching the two Mercedes drivers at Turn 2, Lewis Hamilton is able to carry more speed to the apex of the corner and is smooth on entry. Nico Rosberg is stopping the car and turning but Lewis has no problem carrying the speed.

"After that, they look similar, but as Rosberg is trying to brake late and carry the pace in he's missing the apex too often. He's upsetting the car too much.

"As the time advantage in practice suggests, this looks like it could be a Hamilton weekend as four tenths in the same car is a lot. But as we have seen, a lot can change from Friday to Saturday.

"There's an interesting contrast between the Ferrari drivers. Kimi Raikkonen seems to be pushing the car to try to do something it doesn't want to do rather than letting the car to do the work, whereas Fernando Alonso is looking very much on the money.

"It's also looking good for Williams. The rear does step out, but the car is responsive so Williams is in encouraging shape, especially with Red Bull seemingly struggling."

LONG-RUN PACE

Mercedes is way ahead of its rivals again © LAT

With afternoon long-runs split between the super-soft rubber on which all will qualify and many will start, the data is patchy on long-run pace.

Stint length varied, but looking at relatively short seven-lap runs, it's clear that Mercedes has an advantage of close to one second per lap.

The following stint averages are based on a seven-lap run on super-soft, with anomalous slow laps removed. Rosberg's run was fractionally quicker than Hamilton's, but the difference was small.

Lotus is perhaps the surprise here, ending up second fastest, albeit with the caveat that Williams did not complete meaningful long-runs on the super-soft rubber.

McLaren's struggles with the super-soft rubber continues, with Kevin Magnussen struggling on his long-run.

Super-soft pace average:

1. Mercedes (Rosberg)    1m14.126s
2. Lotus (Grosjean)      1m14.712s
3. Force India (Perez)   1m15.036s
4. Red Bull (Ricciardo)  1m15.038s
5. Ferrari (Raikkonen)   1m15.045s 
6. Toro Rosso (Kvyat)    1m15.476s
7. Sauber (Sutil)        1m16.458s 
8. McLaren (Magnussen)  1m16.598s

Again, the soft-pace data is incomplete thanks to the various different programmes that teams ran.

Nico Rosberg completed a run of 10 counting laps towards the end of the session, but with Mercedes comfortably ahead, it's more relevant to look at slightly longer 14-lap runs from the chasing pack.

Unfortunately, Force India, Toro Rosso, Sauber and Lotus did not complete runs of sufficient length to be included in the 14-lap averages.

Soft pace average (chasing pack):

1. Ferrari (Alonso)      1m14.679s
2. Williams (Massa)      1m14.951s
3. Red Bull (Vettel)     1m15.158s
4. McLaren (Button)      1m15.343s

The super-soft and soft pace suggests that Ferrari does have a shot at being best-of-the-rest here, although in several recent race weekends its Friday pace has sometimes not carried through the weekend.

PERFORMANCE SWINGS

Williams looks strong once more © LAT

The brevity of the Red Bull Ring in terms of lap time means that comparisons of relative pace can be misleading.

Gary Anderson: "As a guide to relative pace over a season, I record the fastest single lap time of each team as an average of the fastest overall. Using an average of each team's performance over the seven race weekends so far, it gives an overview of their pace.

"Interestingly, if you compare where teams are here compared to their overall performance, it's clear that Mercedes is even stronger than it looks, with only Williams of the frontrunners closer on pace."

Gain/loss (%) Austria versus rest of season relative to Mercedes:

Marussia      -0.611%
Caterham      -0.514%
Williams      -0.380%
Sauber        -0.177%
Toro Rosso    +0.032%
McLaren       +0.161%
Ferrari       +0.252%
Lotus         +0.360%
Force India   +0.631%
Red Bull      +0.935%

LOOKING BACK AT THE OSTERREICHRING

This is the second time that this circuit has been revived for F1. From 1997-2003 it raced on what was called the A1-Ring, which is identical in configuration to the current Red Bull Ring.

But the infamous Osterreichring, which hosted F1 from 1970-1987 on an elongated track is the one that is talked about in hallowed tones.

Gary Anderson: "It's good to be back here and even though it's a short circuit in terms of lap time, it's a great circuit.

"But it's different to the old track, which was a completely different place. The old track with the fast corners was another dimension, completely unbelievable.

"I came here for the European F3 Championship race in 1982 with Gero Zamagna in the Anson. We ran it on Yokohama tyres and it was his first race. He qualified third on them but you could do probably three laps if you were careful then the left-front tyre would explode because of the fast right-handers!

"We brought the car out for the race with three Yokohamas and one of the British championship Avon A6s to run on the front-left. The problem was, it was two inches bigger diameter so we had to alter the suspension, but we ended up fifth.

"But as a circuit, if you had a time machine and went back to the old track you would have no idea that you were in the same place."