2026 Austrian Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
4 min read

Red Bull’s Home Race

As far as Home Races go, you can’t get much closer than the Red Bull Ring, a track in which Red Bull own! On top of owning the track, Red Bull actually have a pretty good track record, with Max Verstappen taking victory here on four separate occasions! However, last year was a disaster for the home favourites, with Verstappen being wiped out by Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap of the Grand Prix, whilst Yuki Tsunoda finished last as the only driver to get lapped twice! That’s bad! As far as 2026 goes, it’s not been a particularly good year for RBR either, with the team closer to 5th in the Constructors’ (points-wise) than the Top 3, with their only Podium finish being third-place in Canada (for Max)! Supposedly, Red Bull have the best engine, which in theory should help them to go well this weekend, but sadly, I’m not convinced!

Nico Hulkenberg’s Endless Run of Nearly Moments

I feel like we talk about Nico Hulkenberg and Audi every single week, but it’s simply because it’s becoming one of the strangest but also one of the most fascinating subplots of the season so far! After 7 Rounds, Nico Hulkenberg is still yet to get off the mark; he still has 0 points to his name, and he even finds himself 1 place lower than Fernando Alonso in the Drivers’ Standings (currently in 19th)! Despite this, Hulkenberg hasn’t actually finished a Grand Prix in lower than 13th place (emphasis on the word “finished”), and he consistently qualifies in P11! It’s definitely only a matter of time before Nico Hulkenberg scores a point, but given his kill switch button cost him points last time out in Barcelona, there’s seemingly no stopping this terrible run of misfortune for The Hulk! To me, the funniest part about all of this is once The Hulk finally scores a point for Audi, I’m sure he’ll go on a good run!

Oscar Piastri’s Disappointing Run of Form

After impressing for the large majority of the 2025 Formula 1 Season, 2026 has lacked the step up from Oscar Piastri that perhaps the large majority of people were expecting! After being unable to start in either of the opening two rounds (partly down to him, partly down to the car), Oscar bounced back in style in Japan, finishing second in a Race that he honestly deserved to win (and would’ve had it not been for the Safety Car)! In Miami, Piastri was able to make it back-to-back Podiums, but despite this, his pace was very disappointing in comparison to his teammate Lando Norris, who came close to winning! Canada was then a disaster for the entire McLaren team, with their gamble to start the Race on Intermediate Tyres proving to be a catastrophic error, only made worse by Piastri wiping out the Williams of Alex Albon! In fairness, Oscar was able to outqualify and outperform Lando in Monaco, albeit he could only finish 5th, whilst his 5th-place finish at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix came in the complete opposite way, with Piastri finishing some 35 seconds behind his teammate! After 7 weekends, Oscar Piastri is only 5 points off his teammate’s total, but it’s definitely been advantage Lando, especially on a Sunday! There’s no doubt that Oscar has the talent to turn things around, but it’s going to be difficult for that to start at a circuit that Norris tends to excel around!

Liam Lawson Deserves So Much Praise

Liam Lawson is a driver who’s had plenty of attention on him since he substituted for an injured Daniel Ricciardo at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, with the noise around him being both good and bad! After doing well at AlphaTauri/VCARB, Liam earned his way to a main Red Bull seat, only to get dropped just 2 rounds into his time there! So, back to Racing Bulls, and after a tricky transition period, Lawson really seemed to find himself again at last year’s Austrian Grand Prix, finishing in a brilliant P6! After a solid rest of his 2025 campaign, in which the Kiwi scored a career-best 5th-place finish in Azerbaijan, Liam knew that the pressure was going to be on him in 2026 as getting beaten by Rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad would put his Formula 1 career in jeopardy! So, having known all of this, Liam Lawson has 100% stepped up his game to another level, scoring points in 5 of the opening 7 rounds, with three Top 7 finishes (including a brilliant P6 in Monaco)! As a result, Liam currently finds himself 10th in the Drivers’ Championship, having already scored 28 points! I’ve been super impressed with Lawson so far this season; he’s definitely been one of the drivers of the season!

Is Lewis Hamilton in this Championship Fight?

The first thing that I would say to that question is it’s way too early to be talking about who is and who isn’t in this year’s World Drivers’ Championship fight! The second thing I would say is absolutely yes, Lewis Hamilton is definitely in this year’s World Championship fight… if Ferrari can keep improving their performance! Lewis has been driving exceptionally well over the last 3 Race Weekends, with the highlight moment obviously being his first Grand Prix win in red! Due to that result, the hype surrounding Hamilton and Ferrari has been astronomical, with the added bonus of a Kimi Antonelli DNF having both Team LH and the Tifosi truly believing in a historic 8th-World Title! Let’s be honest, though, for that to happen, Ferrari will need to catch Mercedes up when it comes to overall performance, as it’s still fair to say that the two Mercs have the quickest package! However, the one big issue for Mercedes right now is as strong as their power unit is, it’s seemingly anything but reliable, with both Antonelli and George Russell suffering retirements due to bad reliability, and that sentiment can also be echoed for basically every other team/driver that’s running with a Mercedes PU in the back! It’s going to be difficult; Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli are still the favourites right now, but Lewis Hamilton can cause them an awful lot of headaches!