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It’s a sprint race weekend at Red Bull Ring
Formula 1 heads to the Styrian Alps this weekend, for the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix. Held at Red Bull Ring, this is the home race for Red Bull, and they enter the week having dominated the 2023 F1 season.
Red Bull has won every race this year, and Max Verstappen is in search of his fifth-straight victory.
Can anyone catch them?
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that this is one of the sprint races on the 2023 schedule. Under the new “Sprint Saturday” format, drivers will have just one practice session before qualifying for the Grand Prix on Friday. Then on Saturday drivers will partake in the “Sprint Shootout” qualifying for the sprint race, followed by the sprint race itself.
Then on Sunday we’ll see the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix.
Here’s how to watch, and what to watch for, this weekend.
How To Watch (all times Eastern):
Practice 1 – Friday June 30 – 7:25 a.m. – ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN
Qualifying – Friday June 30 – 10:55 a.m. – ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN
Sprint Shootout – Saturday July 1 – 5:55 a.m. – ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN
Sprint Race – Saturday July 1 – 10:25 a.m. – ESPN/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN
Grand Prix Race – Sunday July 2 – 8:55 a.m. – ESPN/ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN
What to Watch:
There is Red Bull Ring, with its ten turns and three DRS zones.
Despite being the shortest track on the F1 circuit, with lap times around one minute, Red Bull Ring has a number of elements that make it one of the trickiest tracks on the schedule.
“Spielberg is quite a short track, but actually it’s much harder than it looks. You can lose a lot of time if you make any mistakes and it’s definitely a track which is hard on the brakes. It has quite a lot of straights, but equally there are four high-speed corners,” said AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries in the team’s media preview.
“In search of ultimate performance, the compromise between the downforce levels is not so straightforward: you want to put a bit more wing on, but then you also want a package that is raceable and allows you to fight,” he added. “Usually that also comes with the penalty of a little bit more sliding when you have less downforce, so then you’re a bit harder on the tyres. I think in terms of decisions and compromises, Red Bull Ring is a little bit more difficult than you would think from looking at a map of the track.”
That is just one of the storylines this week. Here are some others.
The major storylines facing F1 this week, including Ferrari’s potential new floor, Lewis Hamilton’s contract, and more.
A refresher on the “Sprint Saturday” format.
Alfa Romeo is hoping to hang with the Bulls this weekend.
Haas, on the other hand, is looking at this weekend almost like a test session.
Yuki Tsunoda versus Max Verstappen in monster trucks? Even better than you would imagine.
Hitech racing confirmed their bid to join F1.
Laurent Rossi outlined the future of Alpine to the media, including SB Nation.
That future includes Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Michael B. Jordan, who joined Alpine’s ownership group.
That move instantly makes Alpine the sexiest team in F1.
All the F1 terms you need to know before Sunday’s Grand Prix
