Talking points ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix
Thursday, 29 June 2023
The second Sprint event of the season lays in wait for the F1® roadshow at the Red Bull Ring, with the home team on the verge of creating another slice of history for a second time.
A long haul to the Formula 1® mid-season break – four Grands Prix in the next five weekends – starts with a short sprint, with this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix (June 30-July 2) featuring the second of six Sprint race events on the 2023 calendar.
F1's annual visit to the Styrian mountains comes with a chance for the event's hosts to make history; one race after Red Bull notched 100 F1® wins in Canada, the team has a second chance to set a new benchmark of 10 straight victories, dating back to last year's season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Red Bull equalled its best-ever streak, first set by Sebastian Vettel winning the last nine races of 2013 when it won nine straight from France to Mexico last season; George Russell and Mercedes spoiled Red Bull's shot at history next time out in Brazil, but the British-run, Austrian-owned team has won every race since, which makes 18 of the past 19 in all.
That's likely to be the primary talking point heading into Austria, but here are three more we're watching.
Sprint stat bucks the trend
Ending up with 'P1' next to your name on Saturday is the most likely way to win a Grand Prix in 2023; in eight races to date, six of them have been won by the pole-sitter – and Max Verstappen has led every lap after qualifying on pole for the past three races in Monaco, Spain and Canada. That pole success rate of 75 per cent is in stark contrast to 2022, when just nine of the 22 Grands Prix (41 per cent) were won by the driver who started first.
So does that statistical shift for this season mean Saturday's top dog in Austria is a nailed-on victor for Sunday's Grand Prix proper? Strangely not, if Sprint history is any guide.
Sprint weekends have, since their inception in 2021, proven to be the exception to the rule. Including Sergio Perez's win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April – the only Sprint event so far this year – the same driver has won the Sprint and Grand Prix proper on the same weekend only three times from nine attempts.
It's a small crumb of comfort for any of Verstappen's rivals given the form surge that has seen the reigning world champion lead the past 224 laps, but a morsel of optimism is better than no optimism at all…
Ferrari's silver lining from a dark year
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc passed Red Bull's Verstappen on track on three separate occasions to win last year's Austrian Grand Prix; we'll pause for a second so you can take that sentence in, because it doesn't seem real given the divergent paths of the two teams since.
As mentioned above, Red Bull has only 'lost' one race since July 10 last year; Ferrari hasn't won since, Leclerc's searing qualifying speed repeatedly squandered with operational and driver errors last year, and the SF-23 no match for Red Bull, Mercedes or Aston Martin (at least in the hands of Fernando Alonso) this season.
With Leclerc finishing fourth and teammate Carlos Sainz fifth in Canada, things looked to be on the up for the Scuderia in Montreal; adding to their four previous wins at the Red Bull Ring (1999, 2002, 2003 and last year) looks a step too far, but Leclerc pushing to the podium would count as progress while lifting him from an unflattering seventh in the drivers' standings.
Perez's fightback must start on Saturdays
The year's only Sprint weekend before Austria – Baku – must seem like a lifetime ago for Perez, who looked set to mount a genuine championship charge after winning both the short and long-form Azerbaijan races to trail teammate Verstappen by just six points in the standings after four rounds.
Four rounds later, that deficit has ballooned to 69 points with Verstappen taking a quartet of race victories (and two extra points for fastest laps) since Perez's fifth win in Red Bull colours; worse still, Perez's Saturday form has completely deserted him, qualifying 20th, 11th and 12th in the past three races and giving himself far too much to do on Sundays.
After Perez finished a muted sixth in Montreal, team principal Christian Horner said he felt the Mexican's recent script could easily flip with one solid showing.
"We've seen what Checo is capable of, only a month or two ago," Horner reasoned.
"I think he just needs to have a strong weekend to find that confidence, and then I've got no doubt he'll be back."
The Formula 1® Austrian Grand Prix 2023 will be available to watch live on Foxtel and Kayo. See our What time does the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix start in Australia article for timings.
