F1 in Austria: Starts off exciting, then goes the opposite way

A heatwave, engine upgrades, plus power levels for the next two seasons. Formula 1 raced at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this past weekend while the region sweltered under a heat dome. It was a weekend of unmet expectations: After such a strong performance in Barcelona, pundits were ready to declare Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton a proper title contender. The red cars flattered to deceive at times, but the real challenge to Mercedes’ ongoing dominance came from a newly resurgent Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who reminded us why so many of the packed grandstands were all wearing orange. The original Östereichring was a spectacular thing, with steep gradients, long straights, and high-speed curves, surrounded by views of the Styrian mountains. But racetrack designers in the late 1960s paid scant attention to safety features, and the corners were mostly lined with Armco fencing. The sport stopped racing there after the 1987 Grand Prix, judging it too dangerous for the speeds F1 cars were capable of at the time. It was rebuilt in the mid-’90s, losing around a mile (1.6 km) in length and much of its original character in the process but gaining things like gravel traps and runoff areas at the