The 2023 F1 Season heads back to Europe again for a race run on a track owned by Red Bull, which feels like most of the 2023 season so far is also owned by Red Bull, so to give F1 some wings and predict the winners and losers in advance is our 2023 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Preview.
The Gurgler’s 2023 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Preview brings some thoughts on the race itself, a few bold predictions here and there, a few barely interesting stats.
Essentially a quick summary of what a casual F1 fan needs in the shortest possible time.
The new Red Bull Ring is a shadow of the former track, but the modern one at least produces decent races. It’s got lots of undulation, which instantly makes a track look more interesting, and the tight, uphill turn three always produces action. Usually some clumsy overtaking, now and again some great overtaking, and very occasionally some outright dangerously hopeless moves.
Usually we describe what the track looks like, along the lines of a poorly drawn animal or the like, but we can’t quite nail this track. Well except it sort of looks like that hammer cartoon from Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall music clip. Or maybe a staple remover.
Either way this is a track to be enjoyed, as long as you drive with the lines and don’t appear to drive fellow drivers off the road. There were a few penalties handed out last season.
2023 Austrian F1 Grand Prix Preview – Race Rating
The Gurgler does like to use some obscure drivers in our Race previews and report, so who better to use than Teo Fabi to determine a race rating system.
So before each race we give a rating out of ten for four key category that are loosely based on each letter of Teo Fabi’s surname. Don’t know who Teo Fabi is, you should.
FAST? 7/10 – It’s a pretty fast track, not as good as back in the day with the alost dangerous sweeping curves, but what is? To make it seem even faster it is a very short lap time-wise, so a race does tend to fly by. Qualifying does become a problem on a short track, which is great for neutrals.
ACTION? 8/10 – Given it’s almost Go Kart track feeling, it seems to lead into races having plenty of action. There’s a few corner where ambition overtakes talent which leads to some poor overtaking attempts and the occasional prang. Plus we have seen some late race passes for positions and the lead in either the Austrian or Styrian Grands Prix. Plus this weekend has a sprint race, so twice the chance for action.
BIG HISTORY? – 6/10 Bit of a stop-start nature to the Austrian Grand Prix. It has 80’s history on the big track. Some good memories from late 90’s races when it was called the A1 Ring. And the more recent name of the Red Bull Ring has also seen some good racing, and it will always be known as the savious of F1 racing as it was the first track to see racing during the Covid affected 2020 season.
INCLEMENT WEATHER? – 8/10 Anyone ask for potential showers on Friday and Saturday and Thunderstorms on Sunday. Well, according to The Weather Channel, there’s plenty of chances for that to happen.
RACE RATING 73% – This weekend could be fun. Or a Red Bull cakewalk.
Want to know if your favourite driver for this weekend is a master of the track or the track is a master of them? Here then are some barely interesting facts and stats.
There’s almost too many stats and facts to bring you this week. Most stats go back to 2000.
- A lot of the stats visual below cover races from 2001 – the first race someone from the current field entered. Which was Fernando Alonso, so interesting he is going so well all these years later.
- In the 15 races since 2001 the pole sitter has missed out on a podium just twice one DNF and a fourth. It’s eight wins from 15 poles for the record.
- It’s not much of a Lewis Hamilton track, with just two wins there, and meanwhile his Mercedes team mates at the time (Rosberg and Bottas) have four wins between them.
- Not a great track for Fernando Alonso with four DNFs from ten starts.
- Aston Martin have a pretty weak average grid position at this track too.
- Max Verstappen has qualified on the from row of the grid for all races at the track since 2019.
DRIVER GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT FROM 2003 – CURRENT DRIVERS
TEAM GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT FROM 2003
HISTORIC DRIVER RESULTS
99 = a DNF. Gird position 20 is overstated as that was also used for cars starting in pitlane.
RACE RESULTS FROM GRID POSITION
DNFs
- Interestingly our feature image above is from the 1985 Austrian Grand Prix. The man in the middle of that barrel roll was indeed fired not long after that.
- Valtteri Bottas to bring back some of his past good form and qualify top ten and score points.
- Wet qualifying to mix up grid, and Sergio PErez to choke in qualifying again.
- Wet qualifying will probably mean Ferrari will put at least one of their drivers on the wrong tyre at some stage.
- Luck runs out for Fernando Alonso and a DNF is coming.
- Midfield mayhem on lap one of the Sprint Race, which will also be run on a wet, but drying track.
- Thunderstorm to hit the main race halfway through, causing red flags. Which will be the only way to stop Verstappen lapping the field.
- Podium in one of the races for Yuki Tsunoda. Why not.
- Nyck de Vries to be close to fired by end of weekend.
- Lance Stroll will run into someone.
- Logan Sargeant will spin off at the second last corner at least once.
As ever we like to reminisce about Formula 1 here at The Gurgler, with the fondest of memories of 1980’s / 1990’s Formula 1. Especially with the Voice of F1 Murray Walker providing the soundtrack.
There’s plenty of good Austrian races to go back to, and as ever we’ll probably whip up the same old ones we offer every year.
The videos may not appear here due to right, but worth a follow on YouTube.
1982 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
1985 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
1987 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
ALL RACE RESULTS – AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX
ALL RACE RESULTS – STYRIAN GRAND PRIX
