Red Bull has plenty to beef about

Red Bull Ring at Spielberg in Austria is a rural circuit set against a backdrop of Alpine pastures and distant peaks.

Red Bull Ring at Spielberg in Austria is a rural circuit set against a backdrop of Alpine pastures and distant peaks.

Published Jun 17, 2015

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Spielberg, Austria - However good the party turns out to be, Red Bull is feeling far from bullish as Formula One descends on its home Austrian circuit in search of excitement this weekend.

Last season, when Austria's scenic Spielberg circuit returned to the calendar after an 11-year absence, the host revved up the fans by winning in Canada with Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

This time, with both its drivers sure to collect penalties in the next few races for exceeding the engine allocation, there will be a lot more criticism than optimism wafting around in the mountain air.

Neither Ricciardo, whose permanent smile has been tested to the full, nor Russian team-mate Daniil Kvyat has come close to winning and former champion Red Bull, now fourth overall, has not been shy in blaming engine partner Renault.

Mercedes has won six of seven races and qualified on pole in all of them, with double world champion Lewis Hamilton and title rival team-mate Nico Rosberg - last year's race winner - again clear favourites.

Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko conceded: “The Red Bull Ring is a real power track so we won't be with the front-runners.

“But even if our drivers will hardly see the podium this year, the fans will get entertainment at its best,” added the Austrian.

RARE LETDOWN

The sport could do with that, after the most recent race in Montreal proved a rare letdown and last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours drew a record crowd of 263,500 spectators to watch an endurance series that is fast gaining in popularity.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, who won Le Mans with Porsche team-mates Earl Bamber of New Zealand and Britain's Nick Tandy, can expect plenty of attention as he returns to his day job.

The team is hoping Hulkenberg's win will have a knock-on effect for them in next weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

Hulkenberg won the classic endurance race at the first attempt on Sunday, having gone straight to the Sarthe circuit from scoring points at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

After a few days of recovery, the 27-year-old German will be back in action with his regular employers in Friday practice at Spielberg.

His eighth place in Montreal was only his second scoring finish of the season and left Force India seventh overall and level on points with sixth-placed Sauber.

Hulkenburg, who finished ninth in Austria in 2014, has yet to stand on the Formula One podium and said on Sunday that winning Le Mans was his greatest achievement.

He cannot expect such excitement with Force India this week, with the Mercedes-powered team treading water before introducing a heavily revised chassis at the British Grand Prix in July.

Team principal Vijay Mallya said: “We are still on course to introduce an important step in Silverstone.

“In the meantime, the team has done well to squeeze more performance from our current package. The high-speed layout of Canada certainly played to the strengths of the Mercedes engine and, as Austria is regarded as another 'power' circuit', I would like to think we can be in the top 10 once again.”

SETTING THE PACE

Mercedes, with Hamilton 17 points clear of Rosberg and aiming for his fifth win of the season, can expect to set the pace.

Hamilton, who needs one more pole to equal his 2014 tally, said: “I feel good, the race was strong for me in Austria last year and my qualifying is better this year so I plan to take that there and try to rectify the loss I had last year.”

Williams, which swept the front row in Austria in 2014 with Felipe Massa on pole alongside Valtteri Bottas, can hope to be challenging Ferrari for a podium place.

Bottas, third in Montreal said of the rural circuit set against a backdrop of Alpine pastures and distant peaks:”The atmosphere is going to be great again I'm sure.

“With the upgrades we are bringing here, we are expecting another strong weekend.”

STATISTICS

Lap distance: 4.326km (71 laps) Total distance: 307.02km

Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) 1m08.337s (Ferrari, 2003)

2014 pole: Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 1:08.759

2014 winner: Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes

Start time: 1400 SAST

Tyres: Soft (yellow), supersoft (red)

WINS

Four-times champion Sebastian Vettel has 40 career wins, double world champion Lewis Hamilton is on 37 and Fernando Alonso 32. Kimi Raikkonen has won 20 races, Jenson Button 15 and Nico Rosberg 10.

One more victory for Vettel would put him level with the late Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna in third place on the all-time lists.

Ferrari has won 222 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 50. Mercedes has won 35.

McLaren has not won for 45 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012. They went 48 races without a win from 1993-97.

POLE POSITION

Mercedes has been on pole for the past 18 races. The record for consecutive poles is 24 (Williams 1992-93).

Hamilton has been on pole in six of the seven races this season, Rosberg beating him in Spain. Hamilton has 44 career poles, Rosberg 16.

Rosberg took 11 poles in 2014, when Mercedes and Williams were the only teams to start on pole. The most recent non-Mercedes pole was Austria in 2014. Ferrari's previous pole was in Germany with Alonso in 2012.

PODIUM

Only five drivers have appeared on the podium this season - Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen and Bottas.

Hamilton has been on the podium for 14 consecutive races. Only two drivers - Schumacher (19) and Alonso (15) - have done better.

Rosberg now has 33 career podiums. Hamilton has 77, three short of Senna.

Vettel has been on the podium five times in his first seven races for Ferrari.

POINTS

Hamilton leads Rosberg by 17 points.

Pastor Maldonado, for Lotus, scored his first points of the season in Canada.

Only McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso and the two Manor Marussia drivers have yet to score.

AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX

The Spielberg circuit is one of the shortest on the calendar, with only nine corners, and made its return in 2014 after an 11- year absence.

In 2002, the race triggered uproar and made headlines around the world when Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to hand victory to team-mate Michael Schumacher.

Austria first hosted a Grand Prix at Zeltweg in 1964, with Italian Lorenzo Bandini taking his one and only career win there for Ferrari.

The next race at the renovated Osterreichring was in 1970, the year that Austrian Jochen Rindt became Formula One's first and only posthumous champion after a fatal accident at Monza.

Triple champion Niki Lauda, now the Mercedes team's non-executive chairman, is the only Austrian to have won his home race (in 1984 with McLaren).

There are no Austrian drivers currently on the grid but prominent Austrians in the sport include Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff and Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko.

The circuit is owned by Red Bull, which has completely renovated the facility.

MILESTONES

Hamilton has now led more laps (2143) than any British Formula One driver in the history of the sport, having surpassed Nigel Mansell's tally (2089) in Canada.

Mercedes has finished the past seven races with both their cars in the top three. The only other team to do that was Ferrari in 1952/53.

Raikkonen's fastest lap in Canada was the 42nd of his career, taking him to second place on the all-time list and behind only Michael Schumacher (77).

Alonso retired in Canada for the third race in a row. The last time that happened to him was with Minardi in his debut 2001 season.

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