Formula One arrived at the picturesque Styrian mountains for the Austrian Grand Prix, held at the Red Bull Ring outside the town of Spielberg. At just 4.318km, it is one of the shortest laps on the Formula One calendar, but its deceptively simple layout places unique demands on cars and drivers. Three long full-throttle straights punctuated by heavy braking zones at seven of the main corners reward outright power and efficient energy deployment, while the fast, flowing final sector tests aerodynamic balance and tyre management. The lap is completed in little more than a minute, leaving little margin for error as even the smallest mistake can cost several grid positions. Aston Martin arrived in Austria hoping to recover from the disappointment of Barcelona, where both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll retired after another difficult weekend for the AMR26. With no major performance upgrades expected for another month, the team focused on extracting incremental gains from the current package with Honda working to improve the driveability and reliability of its new power unit. Finally, with temperatures forecast to exceed 30°C and cockpit heat indices expected to surpass the FIA's safety threshold, the governing body declared the Austrian Grand Prix a "Heat Hazard" event, allowing the teams to fit the new driver cooling systems (voluntarily), adding another variable to the race weekend.
Free Practice
Friday's running got underway in sweltering conditions meaning there was little need for drivers to spend much time warming up their tyres, with the baking track surface already providing plenty of heat and grip. As the lights turned green at the end of the pit lane, to the distinctive sound of Formula One's new-generation power units echoing around the hills, Aston Martin's attention centred on two separate objectives; as part of Formula One's mandatory rookie driver programme, reserve driver, Jak Crawford, took over Stroll's AMR26, making his fourth appearance in FP1 for the team and would contribute to valuable development data collection. Alonso would focus on his testing and practice programme, to set the car up optimally for qualifying and the race. Both Astons headed out normally early in the session on the hard compound tyres, which wasn’t the case for a number of the other cars. Norris remained in the McLaren garage after engineers detected a suspected hydraulic leak before he could even join the pit lane queue, while Hadjar also experienced difficulties and Verstappen's Red Bull ground to a halt as it headed down the pit lane. Crawford was among the first drivers to complete some installation runs and briefly occupied P12 before returning to the garage. Some of Alonso's opening runs proved untidy, going wide at turn 3 a few times, resulting in those times being deleted before he returned to the garage for setup adjustments. After the opening 15 minutes Alonso occupied P11 with Crawford in P12, although 6 drivers had yet to come on track. As those drivers gradually joined the action, the Aston Martins slipped down the order. Approaching the halfway point Crawford had completed 10 laps while Alonso had managed 11 and they were 17th and 18th respectively. Alonso continued to struggle with the balance of the AMR26 and at one stage ran perilously close to the gravel before returning to the garage. More concerning was the pace deficit - at that stage both Aston Martins were some 4.4 seconds slower than the leading Mercedes pair. With 15 minutes remaining Crawford and Alonso had slipped to 20th and 21st, (but that was only due to Norris not having taken to the circuit yet) as the remainder of the field honed their qualifying simulations. Aston Martin switched both cars onto the soft compound tyres for the closing minutes in search of improved performance, but neither driver was able to make any progress. Instead, the session ended prematurely when Pérez's Cadillac stopped on track, bringing out the red flags. With insufficient time remaining to restart, Antonelli finished fastest while Crawford had an encouraging first outing, ending in P20, with Alonso in P22.
Stroll returned to the cockpit for FP2 later in the afternoon as Aston Martin sought to build on the data gathered by Crawford earlier in the day. Both drivers began the session on the medium compound tyres, but meaningful running was interrupted almost immediately when Pérez suffered another mechanical problem and stopped on circuit, requiring the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to be deployed. With the VSC in operation there was little value in circulating, prompting most teams to return to the pits while the stricken Cadillac was recovered. After 15 minutes Alonso was P17 and Stroll P18, although the times offered little indication of genuine competitiveness given the prolonged interruption. Running resumed shortly afterwards and the teams finally began working through their planned programmes. Nearing halfway through the session, Bottas suffered a suspension failure on his Cadillac, dragging the underside of the car along the track and producing a shower of sparks before returning to the pits, where mechanics quickly extinguished a small fire. By that point Stroll had slipped to P20 and Alonso to P21 and both returned to the garage for further setup work. In the final quarter of an hour the timing screens showed Alonso in P19 and Stroll in P20, but that flattered the true picture. Aston Martin only occupied those places because Pérez and Bottas were no longer taking part due to their earlier mechanical problems. It remained like that when the chequered flag fell at the end of the session with Antonelli again setting the benchmark time, while Aston Martin, having completed a total of 102 laps, concluded another difficult Friday towards the foot of the timesheets.
There was little urgency among the drivers and teams to venture out at the start of Saturday morning's final practice session, except for Pérez, who enjoyed the circuit almost to himself during the opening minutes. Aston Martin waited for a quarter of an hour before Alonso and Stroll headed out on the medium compound tyres. The pair briefly occupied 6th and 7th positions, which was short-lived, after other drivers completed their opening flying laps. Sure enough, as the session approached the halfway stage, Stroll had dropped to P21and Alonso to P22, approximately 3.8 and 3.9 seconds respectively behind Antonelli's benchmark time in the Mercedes. The Aston Martins returned to their garages and Alonso's mechanics fitted a replacement nose cone onto his AMR26 in an attempt to improve the front-end response of the car and he went out again to test it out. Unfortunately, the change failed to deliver the desired improvement and he went slower, reporting over the team radio that the car still would not turn into the corners as he wanted. As a result, Alonso was now last, in P22 and Stroll was P21, with just quarter of an hour of the session remaining. While most of the drivers, including Stroll, started their qualifying simulation runs on the soft compound tyre, Alonso initially remained on the medium tyre before he also switched onto the softer rubber for his last attempts. The change produced a modest gain - Alonso improved to P21 and reduced his deficit to 3.28 seconds from the fastest time, while Stroll also found some additional pace, reducing his gap to 3.4 seconds despite dropping to P22. Although the improvements narrowed the margin to the front compared with Friday, they did little to alter Aston Martin's overall position relative to the rest of the field. As the chequered flag brought final practice to a close, Russell produced a late best lap to edge teammate Antonelli to the fastest time, with Hamilton completing the top three. Aston Martin, however, remained anchored at the foot of the timesheets, Alonso finishing 21st and Stroll 22nd, 3.32 and 3.47 seconds respectively adrift of Russell's pace.
Qualifying
Qualifying took place later in the afternoon with track temperatures remaining close to 50°C, presenting the drivers with the challenge of balancing extracting maximum performance from the soft compound tyres without overheating them. As the lights turned green at the end of the pit lane, Alonso and Stroll were among the first drivers to head onto the track and they set the 8th and 9th fastest opening laps respectively. As the remainder of the field completed their own representative laps the Aston Martins slipped to 20th and 21st and prepared for another attempt. Alonso produced personal best sector times as he searched for the improvement needed to climb out of the elimination zone but Bortoleto's improvement moved him off the bottom of the timesheets, pushing Stroll down to 22nd and although Alonso improved his lap time it only kept him above Stroll. With less than four minutes remaining Aston Martin fitted a final set of fresh soft tyres onto the AMR26s giving both drivers one last opportunity to rescue their afternoon, but the improvement never came. Alonso crossed the line P21 again, ending the round approximately nine-tenths of a second slower than Bottas' Cadillac in P20 and 2.8 seconds adrift of Antonelli's benchmark lap. Stroll remained at the foot of the field in P20, bringing Aston Martin's qualifying outing to an early conclusion for the third consecutive Grand Prix. At the front, behind Antonelli, Norris finished 2nd and Hamilton 3rd. Attention then turned to the fight for pole position. Antonelli topped Q2 ahead of Piastri and Norris, while Red Bull narrowly avoided an exit after Verstappen gambled on setting a single flying lap in the early stages of the round and he only just scraped into Q3 by just 4/100ths of a second ahead of Gasly. Antonelli placed his Mercedes on provisional pole position after the opening Q3 runs, ahead of Russell and Verstappen, before the drivers headed back out for one final attempt. In the closing moments, the session ended intensely, when Verstappen lost the rear of his Red Bull and crashed heavily at the penultimate turn, immediately bringing out yellow flags. The drivers behind him were compelled to ease off or abandon their laps depending on whether a single yellow flag or double yellow flags were being waved by the marshals. Antonelli abandoned his lap, thinking he’d seen a double yellow, while Russell only lifted off briefly but crossed the finish line having set the fastest time overall. He immediately came under investigation amid questions over whether he had passed through double-waved yellow flags without slowing sufficiently but after reviewing the available data, the Stewards concluded that only a single yellow flag had been displayed when Russell reached the incident and that he had lifted appropriately before accelerating once clear of the danger. His lap therefore stood, securing pole position ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton, with Antonelli 4th and Verstappen classified in 5th, despite his accident. For Aston Martin, however, Qualifying merely reinforced the picture that had developed throughout practice. The AMR26 continued to lack the pace to compete with even the lower midfield runners, leaving Alonso and Stroll facing another difficult recovery drive from the back of the grid on Sunday.
Race
As the cars lined up for the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix and with track temperatures exceeding 62°C, it was revealed that both Aston Martins would start on medium compound tyres, hoping to maximise flexibility on strategy around one of Formula One's shortest laps. The field made a clean getaway when the red lights went out but Antonelli ran wide twice through the opening sequence of corners and although he was scrappy he managed to retain 4th place. Hamilton battled with Leclerc and moved into P2, while further back Alonso gained an early position by overtaking Bottas before the opening lap was complete. On the next lap the Finn reported over the radio that his brakes were on fire and the Cadillac team ordered him to come into the pits, as which point Stroll was able to gain a position. Alonso then picked off Pérez on lap 5, who was complaining that smoke was filling the cockpit of his Cadillac. He also had to come into the pits, meaning both Cadillacs were retired, promoting the Aston Martins securely up the order. On lap 7 Alonso occupied 19th position and was 3.5 seconds behind Colapinto in 18th, with Stroll 20th. 3 laps later Alonso had dropped to almost 6 seconds behind Colapinto, emphasising the difference in pace between Aston Martin and the next ‘slowest’ cars. At the front Russell was leading the race, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen, who were having an epic battle between themselves. As the first pit stop window opened and drivers came in for fresh tyres on lap 15, Alonso and Stroll briefly climbed the order. Gasly's stop promoted them up a place, followed shortly afterwards by Sainz's visit to the pits, lifting Alonso to P17 Stroll to P18. However, the gains proved temporary as the drivers emerging on fresh tyres quickly reclaimed lost ground. Gasly overtook both Aston Martins on lap 17, followed by Sainz, who fought his way back past Stroll on lap 20 and later Alonso on lap 22. In the meantime, pit stops for Albon, Ocon and Colapinto again moved Alonso forward, up to P16 at one point, but as soon as those drivers fitted fresh tyres they too worked their way back through and on lap 23 Alonso lost position to Albon and Ocon. Moments later though, Sainz stopped on circuit, yellow flags were waved and the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was called upon. The neutralisation prompted those drivers that hadn’t put on fresh tyres to dive into the pits and the Aston Martins followed suit, fitting both Alonso and Stroll with the soft compound tyres, after having double stacked them. When racing resumed, on lap 26, Russell was still in the lead, ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc, while Alonso was P18 and Stroll P19. Not long after those race leaders caught and lapped the Aston Martins. As the race approached the midway point Alonso was placed under investigation for speeding in the pit lane. This was later explained that an overheating pit-lane speed sensor had failed, forcing Alonso to rely on manually keeping to the speed limit and resulting in a marginal infringement. At the front, Russell led Verstappen, but now Antonelli had settled into his stride and was creeping up to the leading pair. On lap 41 Stroll passed Alonso, after which the Stewards announced a 5-second time penalty on Alonso for his speeding breach. Almost immediately afterwards Alonso, and later Stroll, were also noted for failing to comply promptly with blue flags, which were waved at them as the leaders caught and tried to lap them. Then, on lap 45, a difficult afternoon deteriorated further when Stroll was instructed to retire his AMR26 with a suspected ERS issue. The Canadian cruised back to the pits cautiously, leaving Alonso as Aston Martin's sole contender. With 20 laps to go Alonso came in for his second tyre stop, served his 5-second penalty and came out 18th/last. He circulated alone at the rear of the field, eventually being lapped for a second time by Russell in the closing stages before also yielding to Verstappen and Antonelli on the final lap. At the finish, Russell managed to stay ahead of Verstappen by just 1.6 seconds, who was only 0.37 of a second ahead of Antonelli as they crossed the finish line. Alonso was classified P18 and last of the finishers, capping another deeply disappointing weekend for Aston Martin.
Reaction and Comment
Having qualified on the back row, the team never possessed the pace to challenge the midfield and once again found itself relying on retirements and pit-stop cycles merely to gain positions. Stroll's retirement compounded the frustration, leaving Aston Martin with another point-less weekend and reinforcing the scale of the challenge still facing the team before its anticipated upgrade package arrives during the summer. Alonso sounded almost resigned, "Another tough race weekend for us, but nothing we didn't expect. It was valuable to finish the race, continue collecting data, and keep improving operationally. We have made some progress in some of these areas over recent weeks and can hopefully continue so that we are ready when our upgrade arrives. Now, we look ahead to our home race next week at Silverstone, where we will aim to maximise everything in front of our supporters." Stroll, who managed to overtake Alonso briefly, commented, "I felt comfortable in the car today and enjoyed my second stint as we managed the tyres well. We always knew we wouldn't be up in the fight with anyone, but it was a good race between Fernando and myself. We know it's a very challenging time for everyone in the team, but everybody is working as a hard as they can to bring upgrades to the car so we need to be patient and hopefully in a few races time we will be a bit more in the mix."
More than upgrades, I am hearing reports that it will be a major chassis upgrade B-Spec AMR26 that should arrive in time for the race in Spa. Honda are aiming to have their power unit upgrade ready for Spa as well - at a push. More likely is that it will be ready for the Dutch GP at the end of August. We have to bear the results until then.