Spherical 11 of the 2025 FIA Components 1 World Championship for MoneyGram Haas F1 Crew is the Austrian Grand Prix, on the Purple Bull Ring.
Austria joined the Components 1 calendar in 1964, although a rudimentary circuit at Zeltweg Airport was unpopular, and when the championship returned in 1970 it did so at a brand new venue close by. The verdant hills above the charming village of Spielberg have been was a high-speed undulating race observe, and the sterreichring hosted Components 1 by way of 1987. Components 1 had outgrown the circuit but it surely returned in shortened kind in 1997, on the rebranded A1-Ring, earlier than throwing in the towel after 2003. The circuit fell right into a state of disrepair, and was unused for a number of years till it was acquired by Purple Bull and its co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz. The circuit was renovated, with new amenities constructed, performing because the showpiece for the native Styrian area and its merchandise. Components 1 returned to Austria, and the Purple Bull Ring, in 2014, the place it has since remained.
The Purple Bull Ring is among the many shortest circuits on the calendar, with simply 10 corners throughout its 4.3km format, and with lap occasions of round 65 seconds it’s the venue with the shortest lap time. That makes Saturday’s qualifying session among the many most hotly contested of the marketing campaign, with simply a few tenths of a second usually separating a number of rows of the grid within the midfield. However overtaking is plentiful within the race owing to a number of prolonged straights and corners that enable for switchbacks and side-by-side battles, notably throughout the opening half of the lap.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Crew heads to Austria in sixth place within the Constructors’ Championship, on 28 factors. Esteban Ocon has contested 9 grands prix in Austria, which incorporates the pair of Styrian Grand Prix rounds held in 2020 and 2021, and claimed a finest end of fifth in 2022. Ollie Bearman will contest his first grand prix in Austria however final yr triumphed in FIA Components 2 on the Purple Bull Ring.
Ayao Komatsu, Crew Principal: “We come again to Europe after our profitable two hundredth Grand Prix in Canada, and we at all times get pleasure from coming to this thrilling circuit in the midst of the Austrian countryside. The Purple Bull Ring has movement of corners with massive undulations. Together with a mix of three straights which have DRS, heavy braking corners, and sequences of medium- to high-speed corners, it is exhausting on tires and at all times presents good racing. We’re in a particularly tight midfield battle and therefore each single element makes a distinction. We have to begin this weekend robust and construct up effectively to qualifying and the race.”
Ollie Bearman: “I’ve obtained fond reminiscences of the Purple Bull Ring successful right here final yr, and after a strong weekend in Canada, I am feeling good. It is a lovely location with actually passionate followers, so it is positively a spotlight of the European a part of the season. It is a quick, quick and undulating observe, so it is a pleasure to drive once you hook a lap collectively. It is vital to have good communication and preparation right here, however I’ve obtained little doubt we will be within the combine.”
Esteban Ocon: “Austria is at all times an fascinating weekend. It is fairly exhausting for brakes across the Purple Bull Ring and it is one of many races that is a little bit bit in altitude. It has very high-speed sections, one thing extra in direction of the quickest tracks of the yr, and it is one of many classics. It is the situation of my first podium as effectively, a very long time in the past now in Components Renault, and again then it was a really completely different observe. What’s remained the identical is the wonderful ambiance, all of us get pleasure from racing right here.”
