25/06/2025
NEWS STORY
The Formula 1 World Championship returns to Europe after its Canadian interlude, resuming with the Austrian and British double-header.
The first of these sees the teams head to Spielberg in the Styrian mountains, a few kilometres from Graz. For the second time this season, Scuderia Ferrari HP is running three drivers over the course of the weekend. In line with the regulation that each race driver must give up his seat for a Friday practice session twice per year for a young driver with no more than two Grand Prix participations to their name, Sweden's Dino Beganovic, the young Maranello Academy student, will drive Charles Leclerc's car in the first free practice. The Swede already drove the Monegasque's SF-25 in Bahrain earlier this year.
The 4.318 kilometre track has ten corners with three DRS zones in quick succession, with a lap taking a little over a minute and its gradient changes and corners prove very popular with the drivers. Traction is important out of the slow corners, but so too is precision under braking, especially at turns 3, 4 and 9, the latter being the final downhill before the finish line. Overtaking is relatively straightforward and that means the Austrian track often delivers some spectacular racing.
The circuit's mountainous location means that predicting the weather is never easy. It can rapidly change from baking sunshine to heavy rain, so the drivers and strategists have to be on their toes, ready for any eventuality. Last year, Spielberg hosted a Sprint weekend, but it's reverted to the standard format this time.
Fred Vasseur: It only takes a little over a minute for a Formula 1 car to lap the Spielberg circuit, which means the field is closely bunched in terms of laptime, and thousandths of a second can make a big difference. Managing to put everything together will be crucial. The fact that seven of the ten corners are right handers combined with significant changes in elevation only adds to the challenge. We have been working hard in Maranello with the aim of ensuring that all the necessary elements come together in such a way as to deliver the best possible performance. Charles, Lewis and the whole team are determined to give their best at a track that often delivers one of the most spectacular races of the season.
Ferrari at the Austrian GP
36 GP Contested
1951 Debut (L. Bandini 1st; J. Surtees ret.)
6 (16.66%) Wins
8 (22.22%) Pole positions
5 (13.88%) Fastest laps
29 (26.85%) Podiums
Three questions to Diego Ioverno, Sporting Director.
The Spielberg track is famous for its hills and battles, sometimes controversial, with the thorny topic of track limits often raising its head. What can be done about this?
Diego Ioverno: Spielberg usually produces exciting racing, with close fights all the way to the flag, because its layout makes overtaking easy and the wide run-off areas also encourage drivers to push to the limit. And that's an aspect that has caused some issues in recent years. The regulations state that a car must always have a portion of the tyre's contact patch on the track, to avoid track limits infringements, which lead to penalties: in qualifying that means having one's time cancelled, while in the race, three infringements result in a 5 second penalty. In the past couple of years, the FIA has decided to stick to the letter of the law and that has led to an exponential increase in violations, which means there's an urgent need to resolve the issue. Physical deterrents are the most effective. For years, tall orange kerbs were in use, which would damage the car and send it flying. Today, the gravel trap is more common and it scrubs off plenty of speed, but Spielberg is still one of the circuits where track limit penalties are most common.
The World Championship is now back in Europe where it stays until early September. Does that make the logistics process any easier?
DI: This part of the championship is reminiscent of old-school Formula 1, when most of the races were in Europe. Returning to Europe requires a completely different approach to both car operations and overall logistics and that has positives and negatives. First and foremost, everything is moved by road rather than by air or sea. It's a faster system, but not necessarily an easier one and it can be less predictable as, often, one has to send partial shipments of equipment that returns to the factory in between races. Additionally, traffic, especially in the height of summer, can significantly increase journey times. Secondly, for the travelling personnel, life is more straightforward as they return to Maranello in between each race, which certainly helps the work-life balance. Lastly, as has already been the case in Monaco and Spain this year, we use our motorhome for hospitality, which provides the best possible environment for our team personnel, as well for our guests and partners. However, the set-up, tear-down and transport aspect requires a large number of personnel.
So far this season, Scuderia Ferrari HP has set the fastest pit stop in eight of the ten rounds. How has this consistency and performance level been achieved?
DI: In recent years, we've worked a lot on our pit stops, at every level. Apart from the obvious training, preparation and practice for the crew itself, we have also put in a lot of work on the technical side. The aim is clearly to ensure the pit crew can always perform at the highest level. This doesn't necessarily mean aiming for absolute speed, but rather consistently staying below the three second mark. That consistency allows our strategists to predict with reasonable accuracy, in what position the car will rejoin the track after the stop.
This approach inevitably leads to faster stops anyway, because when they are consistently good it is statistically also more likely to be quick and that's something we're definitely pleased about. To obtain this result, over the years we have ramped up the amount of training, strengthened team preparation and also focused on the human side of the procedure. As for the pit stop equipment, here we replicate the level of preparation, monitoring, management and issue-resolution workflow that we apply to the car components.
One thing we are particularly pleased about is how consistently we've performed over the first ten races, even though there has been quite a high rotation of crew members. With the increase in the number of races, we realised the only way to ensure solid performance all season long, while maintaining an acceptable work-life balance, is to rotate the track personnel.
Austrian Grand Prix: Facts & Figures
29. Austria's position in the global economy in terms of GDP, according to the latest available data (end of 2023) from the OEC (Observatory of Economic Complexity) with a value of 512 billion dollars. 12.6% of the GDP is generated in Styria. The most imported goods are cars, hardly surprising as there are no Austrian motor manufacturers, although there are assembly plants for foreign cars.
70. The percentage of races that have featured an appearance from the Safety Car since the race has been held at Spielberg. The first was in 1998, when Toranosuke Takagi went off the track taking Johnny Herbert and Esteban Tuero with him, while the Sauber pair of Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo collided. The most recent appearance was in 2023 when Yuki Tsunodo and Esteban Ocon had a coming-together on the opening lap. There were two Safety Car appearances in 2020, a record.
2461. The number of laps covered by Scuderia Ferrari cars at the Spielberg circuit on the current configuration introduced in 1997, more than any other team. Lewis Hamilton leads the way for the drivers on 914 laps.
2995. The height in metres of the Hoher Dachstein mountain on the border between Upper Austria and Styria, the highest point in these two federal states. Parts of the massif are also in the state of Salzburg, which is why it is nickname "Drei-Lander-Berg" or "Three-State Mountain." In 1997, the mountain was included, together with the Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut, on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Styria is also home to many other magnificent mountains, with around 788 peaks exceeding 2,000 metres.
10085. The length in metres of the Plabutsch tunnel, which passes through the Steinberg hills at the western edge of Graz. It is the longest dual carriageway tunnel in the country. The tunnel is part of the A9 Pyhrn Autobahn, which runs for 230 km from the Voralpenkreuz junction (Sattledt, Upper Austria) to Spielfeld (Styria), on the border with Slovenia. The tunnel connects the Graz-Webling junction with Gratkorn, north of the city, and has significantly eased traffic since 2004.