Analysis: F1 teams expect record lap times at Red Bull Ring

In addition to the progression in speeds seen elsewhere since last season, encouraged partly by the introduction of the ultrasoft tyre, the Red Bull Ring has been resurfaced, and some bumps have been removed. That led to a significant improvement in lap times at the recent DTM event.

Last year Lewis Hamilton set a pole position time of 1m08.455s, but the fastest official qualifying lap turned at the track was the 1m07.908s achieved by Michael Schumacher in the Friday session in 2003 - although the quickest actual pole lap was the 1m08.038s recorded by Rubens Barrichello in 2002.

Teams anticipate that this year's fastest qualifying laps will be in the 1m06s range, and may even dip into the 1m05s. DTM frontrunner and Williams F1 reserve Paul Di Resta believes that there will be a significant improvement.

“For us it was 2.5s faster in qualifying [in DTM],” Di Resta told Motorsport.com. “It's just a bit smoother with more grip in the corners, but conditions were probably spot-on as well.

"It's more difficult to get the tyre going, but it just gets quicker and quicker. It's less bumpy, so you can optimise the car a lot more. You can run it lower, which is obviously far better for the aero.

“The bumps weren't that bad before, but they were in places that challenged you a bit, especially braking for Turn 2 up the hill, and the final two corners.

"There's a lot less compression through the final corner, the profile has changed slightly, so it's a bit more of a normal corner. The kerbs are a bit different as well, so it's little flatter and a bit more forgiving to a point.

"I think it misses a bit of the character it had. I think I preferred it when it was a bit rough around the edges!

“With the evolution of the cars and the soft tyres I'd expect it to be in 1m05s or something. It's going to be mighty quick. It'll be busy for the drivers, it'll be a challenge for them.”

Any pole lap faster than Schumacher's 2003 Austrian GP benchmark will also be the lowest qualifying lap time since the 1990 French GP, when Nigel Mansell recorded a pole 1m04.402s, which will remain out of reach for now.

However, the likelihood is that next year – when rule changes will make the cars faster still – pole in Austria could be among the lowest F1 lap times ever recorded.

Here's a summary of where Austria's 2016 pole lap could fit into the all-time list:

Lowest pole position lap times in F1 history:

Year	Venue	Driver	Lap time
1974	Dijon	Niki Lauda	58.79s
1982	Dijon	Alain Prost	1m01.380s
1984	Dijon	Patrick Tambay	1m02.200s
1985	Kyalami	Nigel Mansell	1m02.366s
1970	Watkins Glen	Jacky Ickx	1m03.07s
1969	Watkins Glen	Jochen Rindt	1m03.62s
1968	Watkins Glen	Mario Andretti	1m04.20s
1990	Paul Ricard	Nigel Mansell	1m04.402s
1985	Kyalami	Nelson Piquet	1m04.871s
1967	Watkins Glen	Graham Hill	1m05.48s
1985	Silverstone	Keke Rosberg	1m05.591s
1981	Dijon	Rene Arnoux	1m05.95s
1982	Kyalami	Alain Prost	1m06.351s
1987	Paul Ricard	Nigel Mansell	1m06.454s
1986	Paul Ricard	Ayrton Senna	1m06.526s
1983	Kyalami	Patrick Tambay	1m06.554s
1986	Brands Hatch	Nelson Piquet	1m06.691s
1987	Silverstone	Nelson Piquet	1m07.110s
1988	Silverstone	Gerhard Berger	1m07.110s
1985	Brands Hatch	Ayrton Senna	1m07.169s
1979	Dijon	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	1m07.19s
1989	Paul Ricard	Alain Prost	1m07.203s
1990	Silverstone	Nigel Mansell	1m07.428s
1988	Paul Ricard	Alain Prost	1m07.589s
2003	Spielberg	Michael Schumacher	1m07.908s*
2002	Spielberg	Rubens Barrichello	1m08.082s
1966	Watkins Glen	Jack Brabham	1m08.42s
2015	Spielberg	Lewis Hamilton	1m08.455s
2014	Spielberg	Felipe Massa	1m08.759s