Five things to know ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix

It’s time to head for the hills as we visit one of Formula 1’s best backdrops at the Red Bull Ring.

This short circuit, just 4.318km (2.6 miles), has offered plenty of great racing since it returned to the calendar in 2014 following an 11-year absence.

With the summer break looming, we’re ready to start a busy spell in Spielberg – it’s set to be a blockbuster.

After a fruitful North American excursion, we’re heading back to the European road trip with seven points to our name so far.

That’s just one shy of our 2022 total and the team are fully motivated to surpass that as soon as possible.

The Red Bull Ring won’t suit the characteristics of the FW45 as much as the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve did, however, it is expected to be one of our stronger tracks.

Of course, there are two opportunities to score points this weekend, because…

That’s right, it’s the second of six sprint weekends in 2023. Remember that this season there’s an all-new format, so here’s a quick refresher on how the weekend will shape up…

Friday will host the only practice session of the weekend, meaning that this 60-minute period is the only chance drivers will have to dial in their machines. The day will conclude with qualifying for Sunday’s race.

Saturday is Sprint exclusive, with the first action of the day being a Sprint Shootout. This is a shortened and more restrictive qualifying session, with SQ1 and SQ2 done on the medium compound, and SQ3 on a mandatory soft tyre.

The Sprint Shootout then sets the grid for the 100km Sprint race later that same day.

Points are on offer for the top eight finishers, with P1 getting eight points and P8 picking up one.

Sunday is a full-length race day, using the starting grid order from Friday’s qualifying session.

There’s a real chance to build some momentum heading into the summer shutdown as we now face a run of four races in five weeks.

From the Styrian Alps, we will be heading straight to the British countryside for a home race that will kickstart our 800th Grand Prix celebrations.

Then it’s a weekend off before we’re on the road to Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps.

For Logan, this double-header will bring back some happy memories from last season after he celebrated F2 Feature Race victories in both Spielberg and Silverstone in 2022.

Back at Grove, we’ve been basking in glorious sunshine for the past few weeks. But our globetrotting team have had quite a different experience of late.

The weekends in Monaco, Spain and Canada were all affected by rain at some point and it currently looks like we’ll be getting plenty of use out of our Performance Jackets again this weekend.

As of the time of publication, rain looks likely across all three days on track. Check out the full forecast here.

Our F3 quartet are facing a potentially season-defining run of races ahead of the summer break, all starting this weekend in Austria.

The feeder series is joining us at each of the next four events, leaving F3 with just one race left in 2023 once we return from the summer break.

Franco Colapinto (6th - 48pts), Zak O’Sullivan (8th - 41pts) and Luke Browning (9th - 38pts) could all close the gap to championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto (92pts) over the coming rounds.

Meanwhile, Ollie Gray will be aiming to continue as the leading Rodin Carlin driver, hoping that the next rounds will present a points-scoring opportunity.