A lap of the A-1 Ring

The A-1 Ring has one main feature that makes it interesting, the elevation changes. In almost every corner the road is either heading uphill, downhill, or cresting the brow of a hill. As the cars cross the line, the first section of straight is uphill, with the drivers hitting almost 300 kph in 6th gear before braking hard for the Castrol Kurve (2nd gear) on the brow of the hill. From here there is a gentle run downhill and then briefly uphill along the straight (6th gear, 300 kph) before the 2nd gear Remus Kurve. Back hard on the gas for the run downhill to the 2nd gear Gosser Kurve which leads into a sweeping right-left combination started in 3rd and exited in 5th. A brief application of the brakes for the 3rd gear Niki Lauda Kurve. A quick stab on the gas gets the cars into 4th gear before slowing for the 3rd gear Power Horse Kurve. Again the cars run flat out uphill hitting almost 300 kph before cresting the hill and turning into the 4th gear, downhill Jochen Rindt Kurve. Back on the gas for a quick spurt before the 3rd gear A-1 Kurve and hard on the power to cross the line.

Circuit Length: 2.831 miles/4.556 km Race length: 67 laps (189.677 miles/305.252 km)

What happened last year?

The Field

Winfield Williams-Mecachrome Goodyear
On the face of things Williams could be looking at potentially its best result of the year so far. The FW20 is a lot more stable now as the Monza tests proved and the Mecachrome, whilst not endowed with good top end power, has great driveability so the drivers should have the tools they need to go fast. Unfortunately I have doubts it will be that easy as both drivers are almost certain to leave Williams (Note: Jacques Villeneuve has now signed for BAR) and the team is sure to be distracted in it's hunt to find replacements and prepare for 1999. Of the two drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen still seems to be slowest in normal conditions and I would expect this to be the case in Austria. It it rains, however, expect Jacques Villeneuve to be much slower as his lack of wet weather ability is widely known.

Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Goodyear
Ferrari is looking more and more dominant as the weeks go by, but the mutters still persist that the Scuderia is using underhand methods to win rather than doing it on merit. Regardless of the truth, I am sure that the management at Maranello will be looking to make the next few Grands Prix go without a hitch or any suggestion of malpractice. Without a doubt, the F300b is the best Ferrari to hit the racetrack in recent memory and one that looks almost as good in the hands of Eddie Irvine as it does in those of Michael Schumacher. That Schumacher will beat Irvine is not in doubt and although either car is capable of taking the race win, don't expect pole position to go to either scarlet car.

Mild Seven Benetton-Playlife Bridgestone
Where Williams are improving with every race, Benetton seems to be getting worse. More than likely the team is just staying still while the others move forward, but for whatever reason both drivers are less competitive than they were at the start of the season. Alex Wurz should be the faster of the two if only because his formative years in cars were spent at the A-1 Ring and it is his home Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella raced here last year and as such shouldn't be too far off the pace of the Austrian driver. Podium finishes seem unlikely but both drivers are consistent so points finishes look almost certain.

West McLaren-Mercedes Bridgestone
McLaren has everything to do this weekend. Gone is the expectation of an almost certain win and it has been replaced by the expectation that the team will throw it all away. It now looks like McLaren need to get behind one driver, Mika Hakkinen, in order to ensure that the Drivers and Constructors Championships will go to Woking rather than Maranello. Hakkinen has proved to be the fastest overall and although David Coulthard is faster on a good day, on a bad day he is considerably slower and he seems to have been having more bad days than good recently. If McLaren do the "right thing" then pole position and a race win for Mika and Coulthard trailing in close behind are not impossible, but if they don't it could be another Ferrari 1-2.

Benson & Hedges Jordan-Mugen Honda Goodyear
Jordan is another team doing better than in the first half of the season. Ralf Schumacher scored the first points of 1998 for Jordan at the British Grand Prix and this could well signal a turn around in fortune. In the Monza tests last week Damon Hill was on average 0.5 seconds slower than his team mate and I am fairly sure this will be reflected over the weekend. However, Ralf Schumacher has proved that he is erratic and has a habit of throwing the car off the track so my feeling is that Damon will end the race ahead of Ralf unless it is wet in which case the Englishman will suffer. Points are a possibility but only if the team knuckles down.

Gauloises Blondes Prost-Peugeot Bridgestone
Things are certainly not looking up for Prost and its drivers. Jarno Trulli and Olivier Panis both spent their time at the Monza test running behind the rest of the midfield teams and ahead of the tail-enders, not quite what Alain Prost had envisaged for the team this season. Even the long wheelbase version of the AP01 has proved to be no help and it looks more and more likely that the team will have to concentrate on damage limitation and work for 1999 rather than for results in 1998. Olivier Panis is looking less impressive as the weeks pass and I am sure that some of this is the reaction of the team to his comments about its work. Expect Trulli to outqualify and outrace his team mate but don't expect points unless there are an inexplicable number of retirements.

Red Bull Sauber-Petronas Goodyear
Sauber is still looking like the pick of the midfield teams with performances in qualifying consistently landing them in the top 10. Race performances are solid although reliability has caused more problems that either team or drivers would like. The biggest problem is the rising tension inside the team. Jean Alesi and Johnny Herbert are now publicly criticising each other and the team and Alesi has told the team that for 1999 either Herbert goes or he does. This is sad considering both drivers are clearly capable of getting good times out of the car, indeed both set identical times at the Monza test to take 5th fastest time of their respective test days. Expect top 10 qualifying and race runs, with a chance of points come the end of the race for whichever driver is in front. Herbert should be faster in qualifying but Alesi is invariably better under race conditions so the Frenchman should come out ahead on Sunday.

Danka ArrowsBridgestone
I am currently puzzled by Arrows. Most of the time the car is right down there with the slowest in F1, then suddenly it pops up in the top 10 or, as at the Monza test, even in the top 6. I don't know if this is luck or just that the team are only able to make the car work well intermittently but either way, it isn't looking good. Mika Salo is clearly faster than Pedro Diniz but already there are rumours that he is unhappy and looking for alternatives for 1999 and most people would not blame him. Expect Mika to be ahead of Pedro but for neither car to do much more than make up the numbers.

Stewart-Ford Bridgestone
Things aren't really any better for Stewart are they? People point at the performance of Jos Verstappen at the British Grand Prix and believe that Jackie and Paul Stewart were justified in replacing Jan Magnussen but this ignores the fact that the Dutchman has had access to the long wheelbase variant of the SF02 where Jan only had access to the shorter version. Whatever the driver performance, the focus is back on the team and it doesn't bear close inspection. The car is slow, the engine poor and the race strategy dire (who else stuck with dry tyres on a waterlogged Silverstone at the last GP?) so they are stuck at the back of the works team ranks. Expect Jos and Rubens to be close but the Brazilian to use his greater experience of the car to edge ahead.

Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear
Tyrrell is now into the home stretch as at the end of the season the team will cease to exist. As such I would expect the performance to tail off from now on and for Tyrrell to end its life at the very back of the grid rather than just close to it. Recent performances indicate this will be the case and although Tora Takagi will end up ahead of Ricardo Rosset, there is no chance of him repeating his stunning performance from Australia this year.

Minardi-Ford Bridgestone
Another team with little chance of anything other than making up the numbers at the Austrian Grand Prix. For once, the little Italian team has produced a poor chassis and with the Ford engine not capable of making up the shortfall they are destined to battle with Tyrrell and Arrows for the back 3 rows of the grid. Esteban Tuero should be outqualified by Shinji Nakano this weekend.

Enjoy the race...