Cool, cloudy weather expected in Austria

2015 Austrian Grand Prix weather

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Formula One should escape a repeat of the rain which affected practice for the previous two races as the championship moves on to Austria.

Although rain is expected during the coming three days at the Red Bull Ring, current forecasts indicate it will arrive overnight on Friday and most likely won’t interfere with the following day’s running at the track.

Friday is likely to be the pick of the three days at the circuit near Knittelfeld in the Styrian countryside. It offers the best chance of seeing some sunshine and temperatures could exceed 20C.

Slightly cooler conditions are expected for qualifying and the race – Sunday could see the mercury struggle to get far above 16C. With the soft and super-soft tyres allocated for this weekend, lower temperatures may aid tyre life but could make graining a problem, as it was for those who started the race on the super-soft tyre last year.

For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on F1 Fanatic Live and the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.

Location of Red Bull Ring

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2015 Austrian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Cool, cloudy weather expected in Austria”

  1. Why has there been such low number if wet races since the beginning of 2013? As far as I remember we had early laps of Malaysia 13, Hungary 14, and Japan 14. Since watching F1 full time since the begining of 2007 I remember wet races being a usual occurance, but these past couple of years have been rare. These days the closest we get are wet practice or qualifying sessions.. And then BAM the race is dry.

    I’m not sure if it’s just me or those hoping for a wet race have just been unlucky these past couple of races. In saying that this season has been boring in every way so a little rain wouldn’t hurt.

    1. @robocat It doesn’t help either when they keep the SC out until it’s set for Inters. No one seems to have much faith in the Pirelli wet tyre, which Pirelli themselves say needs some proper testing if improvements are wanted. Time to have an F1 pre-season test at Bernie’s Paul Ricard and set the sprinklers to ‘heavy’?

    2. +1
      I wonder why we are not getting rainy Sundays any more. Its like the rain Gods are starving us of wet races.
      Every race weekend is like: “Rain expected for the weekend, except for the race, which should be dry” or ” Heavy rain is forecast for Friday, cloudy and cool but dry weather for Saturday, and warm and sunny conditions for race day”. Austrian rain Gods, I pray to you.

      #ForzaJules.

    3. It doesn’t help that there are more and more races in Gulf states either …

      But I agree on the wet weather tyre, that thing is shame. I know it’s unlikely but I really REALLY want Michelin to come back.

      For the race itself, it should be a boring one-stopper race like Canada unless the Mercs screw up qualifying again this year.

      1. @paeschli I really don’t understand people on wanting Michelin back. What will that change if the FIA is going to ask them for the same kind of tyre – a quick degradable chewing gum. Pirelli just did what they asked meanwhile they get all the bad press. Before Pirelli, the teams and the fans it’s the FIA not knowing where the future of this sport lies.

        Thinking bringing back Michelin is somehow going to fix everything is just naive…

          1. @paeschli But if the FIA would ask this of Pirelli they also could do this…

    4. No you are right. Here is a list of wet races over years. It has an interesting ebb and flow to it.
      1950: 3
      1951: 1
      1952: 3, 4, 7
      1953: 6
      1954: 1, 5, 7
      1955: 5
      1956: 4, 8
      1957: –
      1958: 9
      1959: –
      1960: 2
      1961: 5, 6
      1962: 6, 7
      1963: 2, 4
      1964: –
      1965: 3, 9
      1966: 2, 4, 6
      1967: 8
      1968: 5, 6, 8
      1969: –
      1970: –
      1971: 4, 10
      1972: 3, 4, 12
      1973: 14
      1974: 2, 4, 11
      1975: 5, 8, 10, 12
      1976: 10, 16
      1977: 7, 12, 15
      1978: 12
      1979: 3, 15
      1980: 6
      1981, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 14
      1982: –
      1983: 5
      1984: 6
      1985: 2, 13
      1986: –
      1987: 5
      1988: 8, 9, 15
      1989: 6, 11, 16
      1990: 5
      1991: 2, 3, 14, 16
      1992: 4, 8, 12
      1993: 1, 2, 3, 15
      1994: 15
      1995: 3, 7, 11, 14, 16
      1996: 2, 6, 7
      1997: 5, 8, 12
      1998: 3, 9, 13
      1999: 7, 14
      2000: 6, 8, 11, 13, 15 16
      2001: 2, 3
      2002: 10
      2003: 1, 3
      2004: 2, 15, 18
      2005: 16
      2006: 13, 16
      2007: 10, 15, 16
      2008: 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18
      2009: 2, 3
      2010: 2, 4, 7, 13, 17
      2011: 7, 9, 10, 11, 16
      2012, 2, 20
      2013: 2

      1. On that note, it’s actually probably down to global weather cycles and El Nino.

        1. No its not. F1 races are affected by localised weather fronts. Not global systems.

      2. Great list, I’ve been wondering about this too and your list really helps to visualize the recent drop-off.

        Just to be pedantic though – you missed the 2003 United States GP, round 15.

      3. Man… 2008 was vicious… It was raining all the time. It was fantastic. Never mind the title fight peh…

    5. i blame Bernie; he talked the man upstairs into not raining

    6. The El Nino suggestion and the trend of the calendar moving towards the gulf states are both plausible contributing factors. It could also be influenced by climate change, but you would expect that to be far more gradual a change.

      It is slightly depressing that the climate is strangling our fun, but frankly the FIA have essentially banned wet races regardless.

  2. wait for silverstone….

    1. Which will either be a monsoon or so hot all the people will start cooking burgers and sausages on the pathways around the circuit.

      1. It always rains at Silverstone, except at between 1 and 3pm on an F1 Sunday

        1. I’d rather it not rain at all if I’m honest.

  3. I’m not getting my hopes up. Unless Hamilton crashes out or gets some other kind of misfortune come his way, I don’t see any reason to believe this race will be worth watching. I’ll probably tune in and out to see a bit of action and fights down the field, since I still do like F1, but I don’t feel like I’ll be missing anything if I’m not following the action closely.

  4. Translates as bad quali for Ferrari.

    1. No, I think it translate as a bad *race* for Ferrari.

      In hot tracks, tyres wear out much faster, so their superior tyre management to Mercedes will help them out. I don’t think tyre management is a big issue in quali.

      However Williams is very strong in Austria, they locked out the front row last year. So Ferrari, I think, will have to look behind more often than ahead in the race (assuming that they can out-qualify the Williams).

      1. I don’t think they can match Mercedes in race anyway. But they have issues with warming up tyres. Even an overcast sky effect their qualifying remarkably. Not that they are gonna get pole, but sometimes one of Mercs (Rosberg) makes a mistake and they might get in between if the track is hot enough.

    2. It does seem that way, yes. However everyone seemed to struggle to a degree in qualifying last year, so it’s potentially still open.

  5. Now, how many engine penalties? lol I heard RBR+STR+Alonso? Maybe not Verstappen then, since he got one in Canada. I thought Sainz still had engine. Maybe only RBR+Alonso.

    1. you know i just watched a program on TV called Legends,
      they talked about how many engines McLaren Honda used back in there hey day, these were turbo V6 engines, by the way,
      would you believe around 25 engines a year, about 3 of those were just experimental with new updates they need testing,
      they also stated McLaren Honda where 5 to 6 sec’s faster than any car on the track plus they would lap most cars up to 5 or 6th place.
      so interesting talks with Niki Lauda, he won his last world championship by 1/2 a point in the last race he had to finish second, but he qualified 11th but just manage to make 2nd before the end, with a car that was low on power compared to his team mate.

      1. so interesting talks with Niki Lauda, he won his last world championship by 1/2 a point in the last race he had to finish second, but he qualified 11th but just manage to make 2nd before the end, with a car that was low on power compared to his team mate.

        Imagine somethin like Lauda´s 84 Portugese GP weekend happened in the age of internet and conspiracy-theorists… everything on that car failed during training, and main-sponsor Marlboro had prepared hundreds of posters with Prost as the champion but none with Lauda.

  6. i was hoping for warm weather… with softer tyres maybe ferrari could push mercedes like in austria. now it will probably a usuall mercedes procession === BORING F1

    1. Funniest thing I read today: “Hamilton wants to put on a show in Austria”.
      LOL I wondered does he plan on starting in the pit lane, and then I thought even that wouldn’t make it a show. Then I read and realized he means getting pole and winning the race!

  7. We don’t even know anymore who are the ‘rainmasters’ on the grid because there hasn’t been a full wet race for ages.

    1. I think Suzuka 2014 can be counted as a “full wet race”.

      But Jules Bianchi accident ruined everything about that Grand Prix…

    2. Vettel&Hamilton was pretty good. Button is also good. But they’ve all had some amazing and some rather disastrous races on wet.

    3. The same guys who are considered the best drivers in regular conditions.

  8. everything is shaping up for this weekend to be another borefest. At least the scenery here is nice

    1. Don’t waste watching it then

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