The Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, is a racetrack that had a long history of producing Formula 1 surprises.
Surprising, at least to the casual observer, was that just 11 of 20 cars were running at the end of Valtteri Bottas' win for Mercedes during the 2020 season-opening Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
It is a bit odd but there have often been high attrition rates at the circuit—on the track as configured in the modern era, as opposed to the older and longer circuit. And that tells you something straight away.
Today, the track has only 10 corners and a number of short but fast straights. The drivers are on full throttle for 70% of each lap, which is quite a high number. The race usually takes place in the hot summer in Europe, and one needs to remember that the circuit is at 2,165 feet above sea level.
In the old days, this altitude gave the turbo cars an advantage over normally aspirated machines, because turbos don’t suffer a drop-off in thinner air. However, by the same token, the turbochargers work harder and are stressed a little more.
But it is not just the engines that suffer from the altitude. All air-dependent systems on the cars—notably brakes and gearboxes—have to work harder because there is less air available. This means that teams tend to use bigger brake ducts and air intakes, and that means the cars tend to be less aerodynamically efficient. And things can get critical.
Last year, Mercedes was absolutely on the limit in terms of overheating during the race in Austria. Things were so bad, in fact, that the team was forced to open up all of its ducts AND run less powerful engine modes in order to keep the temperatures down. This meant that Ferrari was on pole, but it was Max Verstappen who elbowed his way through to victory.
Adding to the stresses on the engines, it is a track where traction is vital and so the fast delivery of horsepower is key to success. That tends to lead to overheating and forces the teams to run less in the high-power modes.
And there is a human element, as well.
“Austria is a tricky venue for the first race of the season as the circuit demands efficient downforce, strong ride characteristics and often very high levels of power unit cooling,” says Williams’ senior race engineer, Dave Robson. “The lap is short and there are few opportunities to make up for a mistake, which increases the pressure on the drivers and the engineers.”
The smooth track surface and the aggressive curbs mean that the circuit is a challenge not only for tires, brakes and engines but also for the drivers. If you want fast lap times you need to use the curbs—and that causes problems.
“The reliability issues here come from the curbs,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “It's a great track, but if you run the curbs too wide, which is within the rules, you damage your suspension. It is a permanent evaluation of the driver, how quickly you want to go, how much you want to ride the curbs and obviously, by nature, they want to go as quick as possible. If you do that, you risk suspension damage or vibrations to the car that can break it.”
If you look at the results in previous years you see that, apart from 2019, there were relatively high attrition rates because of the curbs and the nature of the corners tend to cause incidents as drivers have to make big lunges to make passes.
F1 technology is now so advanced that simulation can provide the best theoretical suspension setups. As for this past weekend in Austria, there is no doubting that because it was the first race of the year, so late in the year, there was less data and less experience with setup. Was that a key point in why only 11 cars were running at the end of the race? It is difficult to say.
“We are used to Formula 1 cars being bulletproof in the modern era,” said Formula 1 sporting director Ross Brawn. “But there was an astonishing lack of reliability in Sunday’s race, with just 11 of the 20 drivers seeing the checkered flag. I can’t remember the last time we saw so many mechanical problems in one race.
“Some of those, of course, will be down to the fact the teams have not run their cars properly since preseason testing in February. We also saw a number of pit stop issues, which showed the rustiness of the teams after a long break without racing.”
So there you have it, the unreliability in Austria was probably caused by a combination of all these factors. And don’t expect it to be very different at the Styrian GP this weekend in Austria as the cars and drivers take on the same curbs yet again.
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The Verdict Is In: Here's Why There Was So Much Attrition during F1 Austrian Grand Prix - Autoweek
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