The Red Bull Ring in Austria is one of the simpler tracks on the F1 calendar, and with half the track basically a DRS zone it’s great for action packed racing, very popular with online leagues for this reason.

 

With the heavy emphasis on DRS, you definitely need wing angles again on the lower side, with a low-medium level of downforce to stay competitive on the straights.

Here’s a general baseline dry race setup for Austria for a pad user:

• Wings – 16/18
• Diff – 10/55
• Camber/Toe – -3.50/-2.00/0.03/0.13
• Suspension – 41-3-12-16-22-49
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55% Bias
• Tyre Pressures – 28.0 fronts, 25.0 rears

(If you want more stability towards the end of stints for 50% races, try 14-10 for the roll bars)

I honed in on this setup pretty quick as a slight mod of one of my templates, and stuck with it as it seems to offer really good stability and traction over one lap but also across race simulation runs as well. It was very competitive at 100 AI level, with me qualifying a midfield Alpine 6th and finishing 2nd, so something about it seems to be working well.

More Setup Info

Wing levels – You need to go with lower wing levels that make the car a fast on the straights, even if it’s weaker in the corners, to stay competitive here. I quickly settled on 16/18 as the cornering also seems to be decent. I think players could experiment with anything from 15 to 20, but I wouldn’t set your rear wing any higher than 20. You can compensate for the lower downforce with other aspects of the setup. But I know my setup above worked pretty well and gave solid race pace with these wing levels.

More Aggressive Setup – My posted setup is still a middle of the road setup designed for stability. Traction does seem a bit easier at this track than some others, so if you want to go more aggressive you could try these things: a) push the geometry values all the way to the left for LLLL configuration that wheel players are using (I’ve added a few clicks of front and rear toe for stability), or b) go more aggressive with the roll bars, something like 10/19 or 10/21, for better cornering, or c) lower your Off Throttle Diff to 45, 40 or even 35 for sharper rotation when cornering. You can also raise the front wing and lower the Off Diff temporarily just for qualifying to give better single lap pace, and put them back where they were for the race for more stability.

Tyre Pressures – It’s one of the less severe tracks for overheating, but you can find the tyre temps starting to creep up at Austria if you use middle pressures or lower. Mine are set around three quarters of the way to max, but you can try them anything from slightly above middle to maximum pressures depending on preference. Setting them lower gives better traction and low speed grip, whereas setting them to max gives better high speed responsiveness.

Intermediate Conditions – I did have some inter running in my race here, and used a mod of my dry setup with the following tweaks: 17/20 wings, Off Throttle Diff up to 60, 14/10 roll bars, everything else as above. It worked OK, but there was still a bit of instability so next time I’d make the wings 4 clicks apart by using something like 16/20 or 17/21 for better stability. I also had to be more cautious and gradual on the steering and throttle inputs.

Full Wet Conditions – For heavy rain, you’d need to make more drastic adjustments. I’d space the wings 5 clicks apart and add a bunch of downforce as well, something like 23/28 wing. Off Throttle Diff at 60 or even 65, roll bars 14/10 for a more planted feel. Also raise the ride height 3-5 clicks. Basically, keep dialing rotation out of the setup until you reach the point where corner exits are smooth again as car is not turning too much so you can get back on the throttle again.

Extra Racing & Strategy Tips

Austria is straightforward in terms of layout but not always in terms of the races, which can be quite hectic with constant overtake attempts and battling for places. Here’s some tips for getting through races here.

ERS Mode (Qualifying) – You’ve got quite a lot of Overtake ERS to use on a Quali lap here – you can deploy it generously going onto and finishing your hotlap, plus in the other DRS zones to boost your top speed. Overtake mode seems to work best when used with DRS; aim to drain the yellow ERS meter to around 10% just as you finish any flying lap.

ERS Use/Defending (Race) – It’s a different story in the race, where your battery drains super quick and needs a lot of managing. Just very short bursts on maybe 2 or sometimes all 3 of the DRS straights only and then don’t use it the rest of the lap to stay level; deploy any more than that and you’ll see your net level dropping lap after lap.

I’ll break it down into the 3 DRS zones for defending based on the race I just did (most important one bolded):

• First DRS zone (pit straight) – sometimes the AI go for so just a short 1-2 second burst coming out the last corner might be needed if they’re right on your tail. A good exit out the last corner and you’re sometimes safe without needing any battery or just a split second burst.
• Second DRS zone (out of T1) – the crucial zone where the AI go for it most often, need a few seconds of Overtake here coming out of T1 to defend if AI are close.
• Third DRS zone (out of T3) – You’re actually reasonably safe here as long as you get a good exit out of T3, and the AI usually don’t manage to get close. So you can save your battery here and not use it if you want to recharge. Just focus on smooth traction out of T3.
• Keep an eye on the proximity arrow to gauge when to use ERS; one solid white arrow turning to two means they’re about to pull alongside and try a move.

It can also be useful to just sit in DRS trains for a few laps not using it to recharge, and also turning down to None in the twisty section from turns 4-8 to help recoup it. This race and last one in Canada really make me want to get my Energy Recovery System upgraded as quick as possible in Career mode to allow more battery use.

Tyre Wear and Strategy – Here are the wear rates I found here in my testing:

• Soft – 7% per lap
• Medium – 5% per lap
• Hard – 3.5% per lap
• Front right wears the quickest.

Traction seems relatively easy here using my setup, even as the tyres wear, so the soft tyre can be used in races if you have a fresh set of them. For 25% races, use any combo you want (I used Soft-Hard in my race and got 6 good laps out of a fresh set of softs). For 50% races, it’s realistically a 2 stop race, with the “undercut” can be super powerful round here, as the AI cars often waste loads time battling and constantly swapping positions with all the DRS zones.