Weather biggest challenge for Verstappen and Red Bull at Austrian Grand Prix home

Heavy rain predicted during weekend, raising chasing pack's hopes of catching up with championship leaders

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has won the last four races. Reuters

Max Verstappen and Red Bull are set for a poignant return to Austria praying the closing pack do not spoil the party.

It will be the first time the Formula One champions have raced on their home track since billionaire co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz died last October aged 78.

Their Austrian benefactor has been one of the most influential men in F1 history. He not only financed the team and its sister operation, AlphaTauri, but invested tens of millions re-building the Spielberg scene of Sunday’s Grand Prix near Graz and getting it back on the calendar.

On pure form there is only one team in the game as Red Bull have won all eight Grands Prix so far but the rest are closing in.

Max Verstappen’s 50-second advantage at the opening round in Bahrain has been trimmed to less than 10 seconds at the last round in Canada.

But with Montreal showing that even a little rain can wreak chaos, it will warm fans’ hearts to know the forecast for the weekend is rain, rain and more rain, and that should make it the toughest test yet for the young Dutchman, especially with the packed sprint schedule.

There will be just one practice session Friday morning before afternoon qualifying for Sunday’s race. Then Saturday will see a shortened 30m qualifying for the afternoon mini race as F1 experiments again with the sprint format.

As the most successful driver at Spielberg in recent history with four wins, it is pressure Verstappen has overcome before, and he, no doubt, gets a boost from knowing it has proven the Achilles Heel of his biggest rival, Lewis Hamilton, time and again.

Lewis Hamilton has traditionally struggled at Spielberg, collecting two wins. AFP

The Mercedes driver's perennial struggle to produce his best on the 10-corner shortest lap in F1, at just over one minute long, is well known.

While he has won other events like Hungary, Silverstone or Montreal seven or eight times, Hamilton has only collected as many wins (two) here as both his previous teammates, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Rosberg. And with the upgraded Silver Arrows suffering most in slow corners, the seven-time champion is not optimistic for Austria.

“It's definitely not the car that, characteristic-wise, is going to be able to beat the Red Bull just yet. We need to work on that,” he said.

Fernando Alonso said Aston Martin could also struggle to maximise the return from their upgrades because testing is severely limited by the intense sprint schedule.

Last year’s Spielberg race was a season-high for Ferrari as they search desperately for some consistency.

Fernando Alonso is not confident of Aston Martin's chances in Austria. AFP

Perhaps they can take encouragement from the fact that their only podium came at the last sprint race in Baku, and the fact that Charles Leclerc won Austria last year on merit. This race, then, marks a week short of an entire year since the red racers last triumphed.

It was, also, the last time the Dutchman failed to win back to back races, but his response to the setback is a warning to all. While Maranello suffered an epic collapse thereafter, Verstappen responded like a champion, winning the next five in a row.

It is a trough new boss Fred Vasseur is still struggling to pull Ferrari out of as they have sunk to fourth in the pecking order.

Red Bull’s No 2 Sergio Perez also looks to rediscover his mojo after four battering wins on the trot by the relentless Verstappen appear to have scrambled the Mexicans brains.

Charles Leclerc won the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix - the last victory for Ferrari. Getty

Two wins in the first four races have been followed by a string of mistakes by Perez as the pressure has mounted to match the relentless speed of the sport’s fastest man.

Behind him Lando Norris’ McLaren team begin a renewed assault on the midfield with a three phase upgrade.

While French rivals Alpine bring similar hopes after announcing $218 million in backing from a consortium led by stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and if anywhere can provide the kind of drama that has those Hollywood types drooling, it is Spielberg and its notoriously fickle climate.

Hour to hour the weather can flip from idyllic, plush green, sun-kissed Sound of Music scenery to sudden squalls and crashing rain as dark clouds roll off the Alps.

On current form it appears it will take that kind of help, or some divine intervention, for anyone to spoil Red Bull’s plans for the ultimate 25 point tribute to their founder in the fields where he was born and Verstappen reigns.