F1 Austrian GP talking points

Can the challengers recover?
Eight grands prix down, it really is looking like now or never for Ferrari. The pre-season optimism was evident and the pre-race positivity is all well and good, but talk is cheap when the Scuderia are failing to win races.

This is the most successful team in the sport's history, a team who breed success, and it's frankly no wonder that the demands keep coming in from Sergio Marchionne.

Maurizio Arrivabene may protest that the SF16 is sensitive to set up, while even Marchionne accepts the 2016 car is "difficult" - but there is only so much loyal fans will take before they give up on this year's title. The message from camp is that it's still possible, but the Scuderia need at least a couple of victories from the next five weeks and four races.  A Schumacher-esque performance in Spielberg from either Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen would go a long way to reigniting Italian hopes and a title race that Mercedes have threatened to run away with.

Vettel: Title still possible

Prior to Canada and Baku, It was Red Bull who seemed to be the Silver Arrows' closest challengers but they too are in need of a new lease of life. Seventh and eighth in the last race was a major disappointment and well below par. 

But despite an engine upgrade, a power-sensitive track may not be the ideal location to bring out their performance. In fact, Red Bull's best return from their home race was Daniel RIcciardo's eighth in 2014.

Still, they have some positive news in terms of driver stability for next year and challenging Ferrari should be the target this weekend, at the very least.

"We haven't had the results we would like there in the past," Ricciardo admitted. "But I think we're coming there with our best package yet so hopefully that can put us up into the top five."

And can Mercedes reassert their authority?
An odd question to ask of a team that have won the last three races and lead the world championship by 100 points, isn't it?

But consider it from another perspective - that of their second car. In Spain, it crashed out along with car number one. In Monaco, it finished seventh. In Canada, it was just fifth. And then in Baku, after qualifying 10th, it only recovered to another fifth position on a track which was tailor-made for its particular strengths and characteristics.

Mercedes won't, of course, be unduly worried. By the standards of F1, this is an astonishing period of dominance. But the travails of their second car may also point to a few cracks appearing in the Mercedes machine and the pressure being exerted by their rivals. They've never had it easy, but now it's no longer straightforward, either. Their performance advantage safety-net has been removed and every mistake now carries a penalty.  

The pressure is on, off the track and on it
Never let it be said that F1 doesn't do things half-halfheartedly. As if back-to-back races weren't sufficient, the sprint around Austria and Britain will be followed, with just a single weekend in between, by the Hungary and Germany double-header before the summer break. Four races in five weeks may well be a record - especially when the two days of testing taking place immediately after Silverstone are factored in the jam-packed equation.

And the pressure will be unrelenting because the next five weeks are, without doubt, the most important of the season.

As the season goes into overdrive, so too will its cousin, the Silly Season, with the various transfer manoeuvrings running to the rhythm of on-track business. Any driver who performs well between now and August can consider himself well placed in the jostling for positions - and seats - in 2017. Conversely, any driver - and it's Raikkonen closely followed by Felipe Massa who is surely near the top of this particular list - who fails to perform over the next five weeks may well find himself written out of the 2017 equation.

It's make or break time.

A record-breaking weekend for F1?
We've already seen lap records broken this season with Formula 1 cars reaching their peak performance once again in 2016. But in Austria, we could go one step further - we may see the sport's fastest lap of all time.

Michael Schumacher currently holds the record with a 1:07.938 at this very circuit in 2003, while Lewis Hamilton's best effort in qualifying last year was a 1:08.455. With the way drivers have improved on 2015's times this season, approximately 1.5s per circuit, that 1:07s barrier would be smashed.

The ultrasoft tyre, the resurfacing of the Spielberg track and the removal of several bumps all play into the record-chasers' hands, and the grip levels should be ideal.

However, there is the threat of Saturday storms. Not now, weather, not now…