Got your pass? Check. McLaren kit? Check. Okay, good, now switch off your phone and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Grab a coffee on your way in, and we’ll get started with our engineering briefing for the Austrian Grand Prix.

We're straight off the back of the British Grand Prix and with just one practice session prior to qualifying, we weren't planning any major experiments or wholesale changes. And with four grands prix taking place at the Red Bull Ring in the last two seasons alone, we're got plenty of experience around the track in Spielberg – albeit in an older iteration of car.

The overtaking opportunities around this circuit, as well as the addition of a Sprint Race, mean that qualifying preparation isn't quite as important as race preparation. So, there's a slightly different focus on this weekend's engineering briefing, with an eye on the two races. 

Tom Stallard is leading this weekend’s briefing, and there’s plenty on the agenda. Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Tom Stallard
Event: Austrian Grand Prix
Circuit: Red Bull Ring

Background

The first thing to consider is that the Sprint weekend schedule changed our intentions for practice. Any changes to the car have to be made between now and the end of qualifying. The second practice session will then be focused on gathering data and deciding on our setup and strategy for the Sprint and the race.

With that in mind, we didn't conduct a huge number of set-up experiments. It's also worth remember that on a Sprint weekend, you can carry all six sets of Soft tyres through into qualifying. We’ve done that previously and may well do so again – unless it looks like quali will be wet and they wouldn’t be needed.

Challenges

With the above in mind, race preparation arguably becomes more important than qualifying prep and that's why FP2 will be important on Saturday, despite us not being able to make any changes to the car. That is partly because overtaking is relatively easy on this circuit, which means the importance of qualifying is not huge.

There are three DRS zones, you have 24 Sprint laps to make-up ground if required, and all of Sunday as well. This tends to bias FP1 in favour of race set-up.

1 | Rear wing choice

Austria makes you think about your choice of rear wing, because the weather tends to be unpredictable, and the track makes different demands. Go low downforce and it’ll be too scary if it rains, go high downforce and you’ll be a sitting duck on the straights. In true race engineering fashion, everyone usually ends-up somewhere in the middle.

With only one practice session, however, there isn’t really time for a lot of experimentation. We’ll be going with the wing we ran at Silverstone and in Canada, and studying what size of gurney we want to fit. Downforce levels tend to be a little higher here than at Silverstone – but not by much.

The caveat is there's been events in 2022 with a larger split in end of straight speed than in previous years. If you’re at the bottom of the speed list, it’s very difficult to race against cars at the top, even if your car is quicker around the lap. That encourages you to run a car that’s fast on the straights, rather than optimised to be fast over a lap.

2 | Mechanical set-up

The mechanical set-up of the car is always a little bit tricky here because the two halves of the circuit are quite different: there’s some high-speed corners, but also a lot of camber to deal with as we’re racing up and down a hillside. The good thing is that, since the last resurfacing, this circuit has become very, very smooth.

Being smooth allows everyone to run their cars quite stiff vertically – though roll stiffness is a little harder to choose. You run the car with the highest roll stiffness you think you can get away with in the first four corners – though finding out what that is, requires some work.

3 | Tough turns

Turn 3 is particularly tough. The track is very heavily warped at that corner, as it rises up to the apex and then drops away as the cars come over the crest. The drivers have to either choose a wider line, or accept they’re going to three-wheel through the apex.

Visibility here and in T1, T6 and T9 is also going to be difficult. Visibility from the cockpit is an issue this year anyway, but where the track is rising up, or dropping away, the drivers are really going to struggle to see the exit kerbs. More time on track will help – but someone will get it wrong over the weekend.

The challenge with this is the reputation of Spielberg as a car-breaker. Running over the kerbs used to smash the front wings. That won’t be so much of a problem now because the low rake of these cars has raised the front wing – but the floor-edge is definitely a worry. Could be a busy weekend for the guys with the hot glue!

Briefing complete. Qualifying is up next, so it's time to comb through the data and ensure we're making the most of everything we learned and implementing any changes ahead of the next session.

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