Formula 1 returns to Austria this weekend after eleven years away, and anticipation is high for the first race at the revamped Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
The race was last held in 2003 at what was then called the A1 Ring, but it fell off the calendar the following year as the facilities became run down and the money dried up. In 2008, Red Bull came to the rescue with funding, and it has since been transformed into a state-of-the-art racing facility where Formula 1 needs to be.
The home favorites will of course be Red Bull, given that the team is Austrian, although a large German contingency will undoubtedly come out in support of Mercedes. The Silver Arrows will want to hit back this weekend after the catastrophe in Canada, which afforded Daniel Ricciardo the opportunity to win his maiden grand prix.
2014 Austrian Grand Prix – Talking Points
Red Bull comes home on a high
Given that it debuted back in 2005, Red Bull has never raced on home soil, but that will change this weekend. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo will look to put on a show for the fans, and the team enters the weekend on a high following the cheery Australian’s victory last time out in Canada. Anything less than a podium finish would have to go down as a disappointment.
Mercedes still the team to beat
Hoping to rain on Red Bull’s parade will be Mercedes, who looks to continue its perfect pole position streak and return to the top step of the podium. Nico Rosberg’s championship lead now stands at 22 points over teammate Lewis Hamilton, but neither has raced in F1 on this circuit. It could be another classic tussle between our two title protagonists this weekend.
Back to the future?
In planning for this weekend’s race, all of the teams will have been putting their drivers through their paces on the simulator as usual. However, many of the drivers will have raced in Spielberg in their junior formulae days, giving them something to hark back on. It’s great to be back in a country that loves F1.
Ferrari hopes for better… which won’t be hard
In Canada, just eleven cars finished the race. Out of said eleven, Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were classified in sixth and tenth place respectively; nothing short of terrible. This weekend, the Italian marque will hope to bounce back at a race it has won on five occasions, including the last Austrian GP in 2003. Good points for both drivers must be the target this weekend.
It’s good to be back
Austria’s return to the F1 calendar was funded and brokered by Red Bull’s billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz, and it has bucked the trend of the sport’s recent global expansion. Another European race may mean another early start on Sunday for American fans, but boy-oh-boy is this race a special one. It’s a true ‘old style’ circuit, and with new style cars, it could be a thrilling event on all counts.
Austria – Facts and Figures
Track: Red Bull Ring
Laps: 71 Corners: 8 Lap Record: Michael Schumacher 1:08.337 (2003) Tyre Compounds: Super-Soft (Option); Soft (Prime) Last Held: 2003 2003 Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 2003 Pole Position: Michael Schumacher 1:09.150 2013 Fastest Lap: Michael Schumacher 1:08.337 DRS Zone: Main straight (T8 to T1); T2 to T3
For the fifth time in 10 rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season, the three riders at the top of the championship standings shared a podium and while those points tell one story, the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit tell a slightly different tale.Cooper Webb is peaking at the right time. – Feld Motor Sports
Chase Sexton has been all but perfect during the past 45 days with podium finishes in each of his heats and Triple Crown features. His only stumble during this period was a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis Main. Last week, Sexton was perfect with wins in both his heat and the feature, although he needed a little help from an Aaron Plessinger mistake to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the night.
Cooper Webb finished fifth at Houston and was beginning to worry ever so slightly about his position in the points. Prior to the race in Tampa, he told NBC Sports that it was time to win and like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield fence, Webb went out and captured it. Following that race, Webb has swept the podium and earned the red plate two weeks ago in Indianapolis. At Detroit, he added two more points on Eli Tomac as the season begins to wind down.
Tomac struggled with a stiff neck at Indianapolis and after a modest third-place showing in Detroit, he revealed he was still suffering a little. Webb and Sexton have been able to close the gap on Tomac in the past 45 days, but one of the main reasons he is so close in the points was a pair of wins that started the year. Seattle is going to be important for the defending champion because Tomac cannot afford to lose any more momentum with seven rounds remaining.
It appeared Jason Anderson was turning things around. He earned his fifth heat win at Detroit, which was also his sixth consecutive race (including features) in which he scored a top-five. A fall in the Detroit Main dropped him a lap off the pace and sent him home with a season-worst finish of ninth, causing a ripple effect in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
Justin Barcia was a huge part of the show last week in Detroit. He swapped positions with both Webb and Tomac in the middle stage of the race, which allowed Sexton to close the gap. Barcia finished fourth in that race to earn his third consecutive top-five. He’s been outside the top 10 only once in the first 10 rounds.
Adam Cianciarulo had a great start to the Main. He led a couple of laps before losing a lap and slipping back to eighth in the final rundown. That run was strong enough to elevate him three positions in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit.
The NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings look at the past 90 days in the 250 class in order to have a balanced comparison between the East and West divisions and Hunter Lawrence has been all but perfect this year. At Detroit, he earned his fifth win of the season and kept alive a streak of podium finishes in six rounds. He tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 250 wins one week before the West riders take to the track for back-to-back races at Seattle, Washington and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher is settling into a comfortable role as ‘best in class’. – Feld Motor Sports
The Lawrence brothers are dominating the points in each of their respective divisions, which means the remainder of the field is battling to be best in class.
In the East, that rider is Nate Thrasher, who beat Hunter in a head-to-head matchup in their heat only to finish second in the main when the majority of points were awarded. Thrasher seems to have accepted his position in the championship standings, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying for wins.
Haiden Deegan showed a lot of aggression in his heat last week. He threw a couple of block passes at his teammate Jordon Smith and set up a series of events that kept Smith from making the big show while Deegan settled into second in the preliminary. Deegan was unconcerned about how he raced his teammate and would not let a little controversy keep him from celebrating his second career podium in Detroit.
Jeremy Martin just keeps clicking off solid results. He won his heat last week by making a pass on Deegan and Smith while they were in the heat of their battle. Martin finished fourth in the Main, which means he continues to have only one finish worse than sixth in any of the features or mains.
Smith fell one position in the points standings, but the damage was even worse in SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit. Crash damage in his heat contributed to a last-place finish in that race, for which he earned minimal points. He was not able to advance from the Last Chance Qualifier after stalling his bike in heavy traffic.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Rider
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff.
1.
Hunter Lawrence – E
[5 Main, 5 Heat wins]
90.43
1
0
2.
Jett Lawrence – W
[3 Main, 3 Heat wins]
90.30
2
0
3.
Nate Thrasher – E
[1 Main, 3 Heat wins]
84.00
5
2
4.
Cameron McAdoo – W
[1 Heat win]
79.80
9
5
5.
Haiden Deegan – E
[1 Heat win]
78.21
7
2
6.
Jeremy Martin – E
[2 Heat wins]
78.00
8
2
7.
Jordon Smith – E
[3 Heat Wins]
76.77
4
-3
8.
Levi Kitchen – W
[1 Main]
75.30
3
-5
9.
Mitchell Oldenburg – W
75.20
11
2
10.
RJ Hampshire – W
[4 Heat wins]
74.50
17
7
11.
Max Anstie – E
74.43
6
-5
12.
Tom Vialle – E
72.07
12
0
13.
Max Vohland – W
71.56
10
-3
14.
Stilez Robertson – W
[1 Heat win]
69.22
14
0
15.
Chris Blose – E
67.43
18
3
16.
Chance Hymas – E
67.10
15
-1
17.
Enzo Lopes – W
66.00
20
3
18.
Michael Mosiman – E
65.80
16
-2
19.
Pierce Brown – W
65.78
13
-6
20.
Phil Nicoletti – W
59.25
21
1
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).
