2018 Austrian Grand Prix, Spielberg, 29 June - 1 July

[Bill_Kar]

I expect damage limitation here for Hamilton.

Just curious: why's that? This is one of his stronger circuits. Pole in '15 and '16.

He sacrificed qualifying pace last year for race pace because of his gearbox penalty.

Well, I always thought that Nico had the edge on this circuit, in 2015 it was Nico who won, right?
But anyway, strong circuits for LH haven't gone well for him this year (China-Canada), plus I think the nature of the circuit is favoring a little bit Ferrari & Red Bull.

Vettel's on the back foot right now, because Silverstone is next. If the German finishes behind in Austria, that gives LH a good advantage theoretically . So I think he'll extract this extra performance needed to just keep up with the Brit.

[foxmulder_ms]

I also respect the mechanics very much. They do an incredibly hard job and, in addition to that, are the ones who see their families the least among most of the whole team, I assume.

I always asked myself how much they get paid. Does anyone know any numbers?

A junior mechanic may be in the range of $40,000.00 USD per year, whereas an experienced mechanic (depending on years of experience and qualifications/skills) can easily be in the $80,0000-$100,000+ range.

No way. Experienced mechanics in US makes double of that just by fixing family cars I am pretty sure they are all making well into 6 digits.

[zibby43]

I also respect the mechanics very much. They do an incredibly hard job and, in addition to that, are the ones who see their families the least among most of the whole team, I assume.

I always asked myself how much they get paid. Does anyone know any numbers?

A junior mechanic may be in the range of $40,000.00 USD per year, whereas an experienced mechanic (depending on years of experience and qualifications/skills) can easily be in the $80,000-$100,000+ range.

No way. Experienced mechanics in US makes double of that just by fixing family cars I am pretty sure they are all making well into 6 digits.

As I said, experienced mechanics can easily be in the $100,000+ range (which is 6 digits). Particularly the talented ones working for the big teams.

I personally know several technicians that work for Mercedes-Benz (not the F1 team) and BMW, and none of them are in the 6-digit range. The more experienced "master" technicians can hit $120,000 or so (which is very good money).

They also have to finance all of their own tools.

And those guys are working on some nice "family" cars.

[Juzh]

Some laps from last year

Hamilton Q2 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1.04.800) - 2017 Austrian GP


Alonso Q1 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1.06.158) - 2017 Austrian GP


Vestappen Q2 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1:04.948) - 2017 Austrian GP

[designf1]

[media]https://twitter.com/ImanHansra/status/1 ... 6351667200[/media]

[LM10]

Some laps from last year

Hamilton Q2 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1.04.800) - 2017 Austrian GP
https://streamable.com/v7s1g

Alonso Q1 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1.06.158) - 2017 Austrian GP
https://streamable.com/ifx0o

Vestappen Q2 Qualifying Lap Onboard (1:04.948) - 2017 Austrian GP
https://streamable.com/693ly

Looking at S3 and also the end of S2, it might be Mercedes territory. So this would compensate for their lack of strenghts needed in previous sections of the track in comparison to Ferrari and Redbull. Despite we can't tell if spec 2.1 allowed Mercedes a jump forward traction wise.

"Normal" tyres again and a known track. This is gonna be the first time we will be able to kind of compare the qualy performance on spec 2 of Ferrari and Mercedes and also spec 1 of Ferrari (if Kimi manages to finally do a clear Q3 run which I really hope).

[JonoNic]

More than 50% of the track are DRS zones?

[falonso81]

Welcome to DRSpielberg

[siskue2005]

Why dont they make it DRS everywhere whenever they get 1 sec behind someone?

[godlameroso]

I expect damage limitation here for Hamilton.

Why do you feel that? Do you expect this track to favour Ferrari and Red bull more than Mercedes?

Ferrari was clearly faster around here last year, with Bottas edging out Vettel by the slimmest of margins. The Ferrari is a relatively stronger car than last year as evidenced by Canada, where they got trounced last year, but managed to take the win this year. So I think they have a slight edge, not to mention Pirelli isn't bringing the Mercedes control tire to Austria.

[godlameroso]

Weather update, wet Friday, beautiful for the rest of the weekend. This will throw a spanner in the works as teams will have less time to prepare for parc ferme.

[zibby43]

Ferrari was clearly faster around here last year, with Bottas edging out Vettel by the slimmest of margins. The Ferrari is a relatively stronger car than last year as evidenced by Canada, where they got trounced last year, but managed to take the win this year. So I think they have a slight edge, not to mention Pirelli isn't bringing the Mercedes control tire to Austria.

Ferrari had a distinctly different concept last year as well. I have a feeling Merc is going to be sneaky fast in Austria.

I also think Merc must've brought some "under-the-skin" upgrades to France (aside from the PU upgrade). Toto alluded to such a few times.

Irrespective of the thinner-tread tires, I think Merc has been tirelessly working behind the scenes in an endeavor to better switch on the softer compounds for qualifying, which was Merc's single biggest weakness early in the season.

The lap around Austria is such a short one, it is really going to come down to the drivers and engineers and who can make the fewest mistakes. It's important here in qualifying to get as much space as possible on the hot laps.

[Zynerji]

Red Bull running the new MGUK?

[zibby43]

Red Bull running the new MGUK?

I think I read somewhere that they won’t because of the component usage situation.

RIC on 2 and VER on 3 already.

[Vasconia]

Weather update, wet Friday, beautiful for the rest of the weekend. This will throw a spanner in the works as teams will have less time to prepare for parc ferme.

Bad news for Ferrari. I guess they Will have a very busy FP3.