Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes make engine changes for Austrian Grand Prix

The race at the Styrian hills, which was earlier declared a heat hazard, has seen multiple teams introduce changes to several components of their cars. In the case of the ICE, as many as four teams, including Red Bull and Ferrari, made alterations. For Ferrari, the changes were applied to both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s cars. At Red Bull, however, the update was limited to Isack Hadjar’s car.

Mercedes also made changes to the power units of both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, while Aston Martin updated those of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. It should be noted that the Internal Combustion Engine used by all drivers is one of the four new ICE allocations permitted for the 2026 Championship season, in line with Formula 1 sporting regulations. In addition to the ICE updates, four teams also made changes to their turbochargers, all within regulatory limits.

Ferrari, alongside Racing Bulls, also introduced changes to the Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K), with Ferrari applying updates to both cars, while Racing Bulls made similar adjustments across their line-up.

Several teams also changed the Energy Store (ES), with as many as 13 drivers running a new unit this weekend. This includes Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren (Oscar Piastri’s car), Red Bull (Max Verstappen’s car), Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi (Gabriel Bortoleto's car), and Alpine.

Amid the flurry of changes, it was Antonelli who set the pace in the opening on-track session at Spielberg. The championship leader topped FP1 with a lap time of 1:07.796, ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Piastri was third fastest, ahead of Verstappen in fourth, just over two tenths off the benchmark time. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, with Arvid Lindblad in sixth. Lando Norris, despite limited running, managed the seventh-fastest time, ahead of Franco Colapinto, while Dino Berganovic and Oliver Bearman completed the top 10.