THIS weekend we move to the little village of Spielberg in Austria for the next challenge of the Formula 1 gladiators but the preview comes mainly from my friend Dieter Rencken who is on the spot.
Dieter is the only South African fully accredited by the FIA as a Formula 1 reporter.
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He is also an official scribe for Autosport, one of the top racing magazines in the world. Over to Dieter:
Over the next few days I think we can expect the tense rivalry between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to heighten in the picturesque Styrian countryside which makes such a wonderful setting for the challenge of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Vettel has had a severe reprimand from the officials for his behaviour at the last race when he purposefully bumped Hamilton after he thought (mistakenly as data showed) Hamilton had brake-tested him.
Will Vettel have his tail between his legs this weekend? I think not. It certainly is the talking point of the moment.
Mercedes and Ferrari, with Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, firmly remain the top four in the race and as the circuit, which is 4.3km long, is a pretty fast one the other top Merc engine cars such as Williams and Force India should also be well in the running for good positions.
Red Bull, who have an excellent car and two really great drivers in Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, still has a power penalty to pay.
Latest Renault news is that although Red Bull have been hoping and claiming that they are going to get an engine substantial engine power boost soon, manufacturer Renault say that they will deliver small increments of improvement from the engine in the interest of keeping good reliability so that we mustn’t expect anything dramatic too soon.
This will make it hard for Redbull to get their cars onto the podium.
Last year the race was won by Hamilton from pole position, who also set the fastest lap at 1 minute 8.4 seconds.
The track has only nine corners in it and race distance is a relatively long 307 km.
The high average speeds maintained over this distance will require good fuel management.
It will be interesting to see just how much quicker the cars with improved aero dynamics and this year’s wider tyres will be.
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I think we could see a new lap record in the 1 minute 4’s if the weather stays dry after predicted rain on Saturday.
Qualifying is at 2pm on Saturday with the race starting at the same time on Sunday.
Thank you Dieter, I’m ready to swap jobs with you.
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