F1 in Austria: Starts off exciting, then goes the opposite way

奥地利大奖赛：开局令人兴奋，结局却大相径庭

Formula 1 raced at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this past weekend while the region sweltered under a heat dome. It was a weekend of unmet expectations: After such a strong performance in Barcelona, pundits were ready to declare Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton a proper title contender. The red cars flattered to deceive at times, but the real challenge to Mercedes’ ongoing dominance came from a newly resurgent Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who reminded us why so many of the packed grandstands were all wearing orange.

上周末，一级方程式赛车（F1）在奥地利的红牛环赛道举行，当时该地区正处于热浪笼罩之下。这是一个令人失望的周末：在巴塞罗那表现出色之后，专家们本已准备好宣布法拉利的刘易斯·汉密尔顿成为真正的冠军争夺者。红色赛车有时表现得虚有其表，但对梅赛德斯持续统治地位的真正挑战，来自新近复苏的红牛车队和马克斯·维斯塔潘，他提醒了我们为什么看台上那么多观众都身穿橙色。

The original Östereichring was a spectacular thing, with steep gradients, long straights, and high-speed curves, surrounded by views of the Styrian mountains. But racetrack designers in the late 1960s paid scant attention to safety features, and the corners were mostly lined with Armco fencing. The sport stopped racing there after the 1987 Grand Prix, judging it too dangerous for the speeds F1 cars were capable of at the time. It was rebuilt in the mid-’90s, losing around a mile (1.6 km) in length and much of its original character in the process but gaining things like gravel traps and runoff areas at the corners, making the place a whole lot safer.

最初的奥地利赛道（Österreichring）非常壮观，拥有陡峭的坡度、长直道和高速弯道，四周环绕着施泰尔马克山脉的景色。但 20 世纪 60 年代末的赛道设计师几乎没有考虑安全设施，弯道旁大多只安装了护栏。在 1987 年大奖赛之后，该赛道停止了比赛，因为人们认为它对于当时 F1 赛车的速度来说太危险了。它在 90 年代中期进行了重建，赛道长度缩短了约 1 英里（1.6 公里），虽然失去了许多原始特色，但增加了砂石缓冲区和弯道缓冲区，使赛道变得安全多了。

F1 returned to the newly christened A1-Ring from 1997 to 2003, then left for pastures new. Red Bull’s co-founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, bought it the following year—the same year he bought the Jaguar F1 team from Ford and renamed it Red Bull Racing. Mateschitz and Red Bull renovated the track again, bringing the facilities up to 21st-century F1 standards, and the sport returned in 2014.

F1 在 1997 年至 2003 年间重返更名为 A1 环的赛道，随后再次离开。红牛联合创始人迪特里希·马特希茨在次年买下了该赛道——同年，他从福特手中收购了捷豹 F1 车队并将其更名为红牛车队。马特希茨和红牛再次翻新了赛道，使设施达到了 21 世纪 F1 的标准，该赛事于 2014 年回归。

It’s not the shortest lap on the calendar in terms of distance—that honor goes to Monaco—but it does have the shortest lap times: Valtteri Bottas set a time of 1 minute, 2.939 seconds in qualifying for the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. That was before the shift to the ground-effect cars, which the sport used between 2022-2025. The new cars have gone back to generating aerodynamic grip with wings and diffusers rather than a cleverly sculpted underfloor and are much more tolerant of changing suspension rake and offer much more freedom in setup. But the overall level of downforce is lower than it was, and together with slightly narrower tires, they go a little slower in 2026: George Russell snatched pole position for Mercedes with a time of 1:06.113.

就距离而言，它并不是赛历中最短的一圈（这一纪录属于摩纳哥），但它的单圈时间确实最短：瓦尔特里·博塔斯在 2020 年奥地利大奖赛排位赛中创下了 1 分 02.939 秒的成绩。那是在转向地面效应赛车之前，该类赛车在 2022 年至 2025 年间使用。新赛车回归到通过尾翼和扩散器产生空气动力学抓地力，而不是依靠巧妙设计的底板，它们对悬挂倾角的改变有更高的容忍度，并提供了更多的调校自由度。但总体的下压力水平比以前低，加上轮胎稍窄，2026 年的赛车速度稍慢：乔治·拉塞尔以 1 分 06.113 秒的成绩为梅赛德斯夺得了杆位。

Reclaiming the narrative

重夺话语权

Russell needed a good weekend. The more experienced Mercedes driver, he was feted as the champion-in-waiting at the start of the year when it was clear how big an advantage his car proffered. He won the opening race of the season and then watched his teenage teammate Kimi Antonelli take the next five in a row, along with a commanding lead in the championship. Barcelona was supposed to be Russell’s comeback, but that victory went to his former teammate Hamilton, who finds this generation of cars much more compatible with his driving. Austria went Russell’s way; he led from the start and was never in any real danger before crossing the finish line and taking the checkered flag for his second win of the year.

拉塞尔需要一个出色的周末。作为梅赛德斯车队经验更丰富的车手，他在年初时被誉为准冠军，当时他的赛车优势显而易见。他赢得了赛季揭幕战，随后却看着他十几岁的队友基米·安东内利连续赢下五场比赛，并在积分榜上占据了领先地位。巴塞罗那本应是拉塞尔的回归之战，但胜利却属于他以前的队友汉密尔顿，汉密尔顿发现这一代赛车与他的驾驶风格更为契合。奥地利站属于拉塞尔；他从起步开始就处于领先地位，在冲过终点线并挥舞方格旗夺得他本赛季的第二场胜利之前，他从未遇到真正的危险。

If the race had been another five laps, things might have been different. Red Bull brought a significant car upgrade to the race, and Max Verstappen used it to good effect. He started fifth but soon moved into second place, where he stayed for the rest of the race. Verstappen spent the final stint eating into Russell’s lead, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch him before the end of the 71st and final lap, finishing 1.6 seconds behind. Another few laps would have let Antonelli catch up to Verstappen, too—the young Italian finished just shy of two seconds behind the Red Bull.

如果比赛再多跑五圈，情况可能会有所不同。红牛车队为比赛带来了重大的赛车升级，马克斯·维斯塔潘很好地利用了这一点。他从第五位起步，但很快升至第二位，并保持到了比赛结束。维斯塔潘在最后阶段不断缩小与拉塞尔的差距，但在第 71 圈（最后一圈）结束前，他的速度不足以追上拉塞尔，最终落后 1.6 秒完赛。如果再多几圈，安东内利也能追上维斯塔潘——这位年轻的意大利车手最终落后红牛赛车不到两秒。

Russell retakes second place in the standings, Antonelli’s third place means the gap remains large, and Verstappen leaves his team’s home track with a smile on his face and a greater chance of staying in the sport a while longer.

拉塞尔在积分榜上重回第二，安东内利的第三名意味着积分差距依然很大，而维斯塔潘带着微笑离开了车队的主场，并增加了他在赛车运动中继续留任的机会。

Ferrari, on the other hand, had a horrible weekend. The FIA determined that Ferrari’s engine is significantly behind the most powerful V6 in the field—Red Bull’s new in-house motor—so it is allowed two engine upgrades this season. Ferrari introduced the first of these in Austria, along with a new synthetic Shell fuel, which many thought would be the missing piece that would propel the chassis and aero upgrades from Barcelona to the front of the pack. That didn’t happen. During Friday’s practice sessions, Hamilton could do no better than fifth, behind various combinations of Mercedes, Verstappen, and McLaren. On Saturday, Leclerc managed to beat him in qualifying, claiming second on the grid, with Hamilton in third. Antonelli was in fourth, having aborted his final run after Verstappen crashed and brought out a yellow flag at turn 9.

另一方面，法拉利度过了一个糟糕的周末。国际汽联认定法拉利的引擎明显落后于赛场上最强大的 V6 引擎——红牛自主研发的新引擎，因此允许其在本赛季进行两次引擎升级。法拉利在奥地利站引入了第一次升级，并配合了壳牌的新型合成燃料，许多人认为这将是推动巴塞罗那底盘和空气动力学升级、使其跻身前列的关键拼图。但这并没有发生。在周五的练习赛中，汉密尔顿表现平平，仅排在第五位，落后于梅赛德斯、维斯塔潘和迈凯伦的各种组合。周六，勒克莱尔在排位赛中击败了他，占据了发车位的第二位，汉密尔顿排在第三。安东内利排在第四，他在维斯塔潘在 9 号弯撞车并引发黄旗后，放弃了最后一次冲刺。