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F1 Austrian GP 2020: Will rustiness be a major factor?

Returning from an almost 7 month long break, just how much of a factor will rustiness be for teams at the Austrian GP?

Media Credits: McLaren Formula One Team

Today, we find ourselves right in the middle of an unprecedented period in the history of the sport. Never in the modern day has F1 faced such a long off season and at last, the F1 circus will be back on the road at the Austrian GP. For most F1 fans, the regular off-season already seems arduous enough. Finding ways to keep us entertained all through the winter often becomes a rather tricky task and the return of F1 in March is a major sigh of relief.

A break that has caused more harm than good?

What we often tend to forget though is just how relentless the schedule of everyone working in the paddock is. For almost nine months, every single member of the track team has to push themselves to the absolute limit of their abilities while travelling almost every week. It truly is a gruelling schedule that has surely caused a lot of people to find white hair on their scalp prematurely. Keeping this in mind, a three month break at the end of the year is only fair to keep everyone in the paddock fresh for yet another exciting but challenging season in the books.

F1 Austrian GP 2020 pits to podium
Media Credits: Red Bull Content Pool

That said, while a three month break does more good than harm for the team members, what happens if that break is extended to around 7 months? Surely, a layer of rustiness may start to appear in every aspect of the sport right? 

From drivers, to mechanics and from race strategists to even the pit crew, none of these team members have worked in a race scenario for almost seven months now. Regardless of how good or how professional each and every member of every team may be, such a long break can even lead to the best needing some time to get back into their groove. That can make things quite interesting at the Austrian GP!

What to expect from the Austrian GP

The question we all must ask though is just how rusty will each team member, and crucially the drivers be at the Austrian GP?’ If you cast your mind back to the recent Indycar season opener at Texas Motor Speedway, you can get a fairly decent idea about the same.

Texas 2020 Pits To Podium Indycar
Media Credits: NTT Indycar Series

Just like the Formula One drivers, the Indycar drivers too had been away from the sport for quite a while. A lot of them were active on fairly realistic simulators such as iRacing but the drivers were quick to admit that the real thing truly is on a different level. Many, including myself, expected the drivers and the pit crew to be very out of practice and naturally there were a few errors to be seen.

In some cases, the pits stops were slightly sloppy, in others, a few drivers made slightly amateur-ish errors that they normally wouldn’t make. The overall narrative though was that drivers were fairly conservative in their approach and consequently the rust didn’t exactly catch out as many people as expected. Perhaps it could be the fact that driving on speedways is technically not as challenging as driving on circuits that lead to so few incidents but it was evident that not all drivers were properly up to speed.

Pits To Podium F1 Austrian GP Alfa Romeo Sauber
Unlike in this picture, the drivers may be fairly cautious at the Austrian GP!
Media Credits: Alfa Romeo Orlen

Caution over aggression?

I believe that a slightly similar approach will be taken forward by all the drivers and team members. The emphasis at the Austrian GP will be to avoid unnecessary errors instead of quickly getting up to regular speed. 

At last, those who can shake this ‘rust’ off the quickest will be off to a flying start and with a greatly shortened season, that can pay great dividends at the end. The margins for error have just gotten lower here – an error by the teams may be understandable and possibly even excused. Regardless of this, nobody can forget that the liberty of a 21 long race calendar will no longer exist for now!

Pits To Podium Mercedes Test Valtteri Bottas F1 Austrian GP
Mercedes, among other teams, have organised a day-long test to re-acquaint the team with the race day procedures.
Media Credits: Mercedes AMG F1 Team

The fact that multiple teams have opted to go for a few day long tests with the entire race crew may help everyone in the team get up to speed and back on track. Say what you want though, this would be more of a reorientation instead of a full-blown return to action.

The biggest silver lining!

As a result, the racing may not be as aggressive or perhaps even as entertaining if I dare say it. This isn’t a particularly major fly in the ointment though. Fear not, for just the fact that F1 will be back at the Austrian GP will be enough to put the broadest of smiles on each of our faces!

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