Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel says the key to master the short Red Bull Ring circuit, which plays host to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, is to find a good rhythm around the 2.688-mile venue.
Having made its return to the F1 calendar in 2014, the Spielberg track sees drivers set the lowest lap times of the year as they dip below the 70-second mark.
Following recent resurfacing works at the Red Bull Ring and steady improvement from the current breed of 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged cars, the lap record - a 1m07.908s clocked by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in 2003 - is even expected to fall.
“The Austrian track is very short, there’s not that many corners,” Vettel said. “It’s incredibly important obviously to get every corner right. I think there's about only seven or eight corners [actually nine].
“The lap is fairly short so you do a lot of them [71 during the grand prix]. It’s important to find a rhythm pretty quickly and just go with it, especially in the race. When you start [a lap] on the wrong foot, it’s quite difficult to recover on that same lap.”
Ferrari has yet to secure a podium finish since Austria came back to the F1 schedule, with Vettel claiming the team's best result of fourth place last year.
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