With 22 circuits, there can be a lot to take in, so we’ve organised for you to join us in Lando and Oscar’s engineering briefings, where we’ll walk you through this weekend’s key trackside topics so that you can enjoy the Austrian Grand Prix to its fullest.

There is a lot to cover this week. Adrian Goodwin is leading the engineering briefing, in partnership with Google Chrome, and he’ll explain the implications of Austria’s fluctuating weather conditions, its elevation changes and why the circuit’s reputation as a “car-breaker,” is slightly outdated.

He’ll also delve into our upgrade package, including the reasons for it only being applied to Lando’s car this weekend, and the impact of the F1 Sprint on our run plans.

It’s time to begin. Grab a coffee and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Adrian Goodwin
Event: Austrian Grand Prix
Circuit: The Red Bull Ring

Why is the upgrade only on Lando’s car? And how will it affect our preparations?

The drivers are running different cars this weekend as Lando is using the upgraded package with the new floor and sidepods, and Oscar is staying with the older spec. There are only enough parts for one car this week, with more available for Silverstone. It does make things a little more complicated, and there’s a little bit of risk management involved for Lando – but it’s worth doing because the field is very close, and the extra performance available with the upgrade fitted means you simply have to go for it.

In terms of what that means for the practice programme, it actually changes very little because of this being a Sprint weekend. We only have one session and there’s no time to do anything other than focus on the basics of qualifying and race prep.

What is the impact of the F1 Sprint on our run plans?

Working out what we want to do with tyres is a big part of that, and with the Sprint Shootout format we don’t have enough sets of anything to learn everything we’d like to learn, so there will be compromises. The race has priority over the Sprint, because there are more points available on Sunday, and traditionally this circuit has favoured a multi-stop race with the harder compounds – but understanding how you would like to use your resources across qualifying, Sprint Shootout, Sprint and Race isn’t straightforward, and impacts what we will use in practice.

Regardless of the tyres we use, both cars will be doing plenty of laps, because both drivers need to maximise their mileage. For Oscar, this is something we would do anyway: he has raced here before – but not in an F1 car. For Lando, we want to get as much data as we can on the new package.

Why is the Red Bull Ring known as a “car-breaker”?

This isn’t a track on which we push from the first lap. Austria has a reputation as a car-breaker. The circuit is a little less damaging than has been the case in the past, because many of the yellow sausage kerbs have been removed, and the ones that remain are generally the ones that are easier to manage. It is, however, a track where a degree of prudence is required. The drivers need to use the kerbs to be quick – but we’d like them to build up how much they use them across the session.

Austria’s changing weather conditions

Alongside learning about the tyres, there are question marks regarding rear-wing level. We’ll be starting with the medium downforce wing that was introduced in Canada, with an alternative option being one with higher downforce.

Some of that question mark comes from the weather. As is often the case at this track, the forecast is unsettled, particularly for today and tomorrow but – significantly – less so on Sunday. If we were expecting rain on Sunday, that might tempt us to go for higher downforce, but without that being a strong probability we’ll probably stick with the circuit-optimal choices.

The weather will affect our tyre choices. If we expect Saturday’s Sprint Shootout and Sprint to be wet, that will certainly make us consider bringing dry sets forward to use on Friday and do more learning for Sunday. It is a bit of a head-scratcher, though.

What affect do the elevation changes have?

Regarding other set-up options, Austria introduces some interesting problems. The rise and fall of the circuit creates extreme track warp at Turns 3 and 4. That affects overall roll stiffness but generally we want to keep stiffnesses high for the high-speed corners that run from Turn 6 and on through the second half of the lap.

Downhill into Turn 4, there is a real risk of front-locking, which we deal with through the drivers’ inputs and the brake-balance shaping we do. Uphill into Turn 3 is different, with a sharp, blind rise into the apex, where the inside rear wheel is completely off the ground and easy to spin-up.

Managing that is tricky. On a quali lap, you can get away with it, but over a race stint, if you keep spinning up that wheel, you're going to generate temperature that you'd rather avoid. We’ve seen other teams sometimes taking a wide line into T3, so they completely miss the apex and go wider where the track warp is slightly less – but we’ve never found that to be quick. For us, it’s more about apex positioning and driver input – rolling more speed through the entry and accepting a later throttle pick-up – basically biasing the corner to avoid being on the pedals in the region where the wheel is off the ground. For Oscar in particular, it’s going to be something to learn in FP1.

Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Oscar to head out onto the track for grand prix qualifying.