'Ferrari backed to overcome Mercedes challenge once again in Austria'

At the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line in first place to claim his first victory in Ferrari colours. The Briton had already shown strong form in the preceding rounds, finishing second to Kimi Antonelli in both Canada and Monaco.

Hamilton's victory also ended the team's winless streak, which began at the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix and lasted more than a year. GPblog's readers now overwhelmingly support the Italian team to win back-to-back races as well.

When asked who will win the Austrian Grand Prix, more than half of GPblog's readers backed Ferrari. The Italian team received 51.7% of the vote. Red Bull Racing was also a popular choice, with the Austrian outfit, also set to bring updates to its home race, earning 23.6% of the votes. Constructors' championship leaders Mercedes received 18.9%, while McLaren finished fourth with 5.0%. In a separate article, readers were asked whether Ferrari would win the next race, and an overwhelming 82.9% answered yes as well.

The Italian team is set to bring a new specification of its power unit to the next weekend, however, according to the Power Unit Technical Director of the team, Enrico Gualtieri, it is set to be a minor change.

He explained: "As mentioned, this update is not a major step, and it will not, on its own, change the competitive order. What it does show is the attitude of the team and our technical partners: to push continuously and to make the most of every opportunity to improve our package. In a championship as competitive as this one, it is unrealistic to expect a single update to transform the overall picture, especially under the current homologation and development constraints. Performance is built progressively, not only through hardware changes, but also through how effectively you optimise the package race by race."

The former top advisor of Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, also hopes that his former team can challenge for the victory. "The new regulations clearly put Mercedes in the favourite's role. However, they've already had their second engine failure, which is unusual for them. Generally speaking, though, updates are certainly more effective at this stage of the regulations; you can gain five-tenths of a second in one go,” Marko explained.

"Red Bull is fielding a car at the weight limit for the first time, so they'll definitely be there. I hope Max can then be up front. Mercedes is the favourite, but the rest of the field is more than interesting," he concluded.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that Ferrari and Mercedes will also be a force to be reckoned with at the Austrian Grand Prix as well. The Italian highlighted a key area where he expects the Scuderia to be strong.

He explained to GPblog, among others: "Austria is a slightly different circuit. Like this, [in Barcelona] the stability and the braking and turning is so essential. There, there's more like straight line braking, and then you go in some corners into low speed. So it's a slightly different circuit compared to here. But I would expect that Ferrari remains the fastest car in the corners. Probably Mercedes over a single lap, the best car overall when the chassis and the power unit are both considered."