Mika’s Tip
This weekend we will see the second Sprint Race of the 2023 season. That, combined with a good chance of rain, may create the opportunity for someone other than championship leader Max Verstappen to win. If that was to happen, and considering Mercedes expects this race to be even better for their car than Canada, Lewis Hamilton will be pushing hard to beat Fernando Alonso to the win. Red Bull have won all eight races so far, maybe this is the weekend for change!
Mika’s Memories
I first raced in at Speilberg in 1997, which was the first time F1 had raced in Austria for ten years. I remember it well because I qualified on the front row of the grid beside Jacques Villeneuve, led the race at the start and then suffered an engine failure on lap 1! We had some reliability problems with the Mercedes engines at that time, but everyone was working hard and, the following year, I qualified only third in wet conditions and won the race. That was a nice comeback!
In 1999 I qualified on pole position only for my team mate David Coulthard to touch my car on the first lap, sending us both into a spin. Not ideal! We both recovered to finish on the podium behind Eddie Irvine, but I was not so happy that day. But I won in 2000, again starting on pole, and this time David behaved himself and finished second. That was a good day for McLaren!
The circuit now belongs to Red Bull, of course, and although the circuit is short, with a quick lap time of just over one minute, it’s actually quite technical. The quick straights are followed by slow corners, high kerbs and an opportunity to make a mistake if you are not careful. There are some great opportunities to overtake, particularly down into Turn 3, but also at T1 and T4, so if you are precise, have a car with good traction at the slow corners, you can really make up places.
Championship Form
Max Verstappen is running away with the World Championship for Drivers, while team mate Checo Perez has really suffered some poor races since Monaco and knows he needs to put together a consistent weekend.
Behind Max there is so much to enjoy as Aston Martin battles with Mercedes Benz. It was great to see Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton on the podium with Max in Canada – three great world champions together. Fernando and Lewis are beginning to close the gap to Checo in the World Chammpionship and, just like Checo, their team mates have had some problems.
Lance Stroll has 37 points to Fernando’s 117 while Lewis leads George Russell by 102 points to 65, so it’s going to be really important for those teams to focus on getting consistent performance across their driver line-up. Aston Martin brought upgrades to Canada, while Mercedes introduced their upgrades in Monaco but really showed strongly in Barcelona and Montreal, so the fight between these two teams is just brilliant to watch.
Ferrari ran a good strategy in Canada and they need to build on that kind of confidence, even if Mercedes and Aston continue to have a performance advantage.
Alpine, fifth in the World Championship at the moment, had big news this week with the announcement that investors including Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have bought a quarter of the team. I think that’s fantastic news for F1, showing how strongly the sport is performing in America, attracting new fans, sponsors and celebrity investors.
McLaren is one of the teams that has really maximised the opportunities in America with an incredible line-up of sponsors. The team is introducing a series of upgrades to its car starting this weekend, aiming to give Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri a quicker, more consistent race car.
