Uneasy atmosphere as F1 heads to Red Bull's home track for Austrian GP

This weekend's Austrian Grand Prix will be played out with a slight mood of unease in the air, as the sport digests the fallout from the Vettel/Hamilton collision in Baku, prepares for one of its iconic races to trigger a contract break clause and fears a possible competition-destroying upgrade on the Mercedes.

The warning signs were there in Baku that Mercedes had got on top of the issues with tyre warm up it had been suffering in many of the early season races. At the same time the Ferrari seemed to have taken a step backwards due to some clarifications and FIA technical directives on engine combustion.

For this weekend Mercedes is poised to pile on the pressure with another significant upgrade. On a track where the team has been strong since the hybrid turbos were introduced in 2014, this could tip the balance of the tight competition we have seen so far at the front in Mercedes' favour. There is still a long way to go, Ferrari has an engine upgrade for Silverstone and Vettel has a small lead in the championship table, but the signs are that Mercedes may be about to go on a run.

Vettel and Hamilton have both been called for this afternoon's FIA press conference, along with Kevin Magnussen, who will no doubt sit rather uneasily alongside the pair who said some hard words about each other on Sunday night in Baku. It will be fascinating to see how contrite Vettel is after realising the seriousness of what happened in Baku during an FIA hearing on Monday. He had to work hard on the apologies in order not to be punished more severely for side-swiping into Hamilton.

Silverstone countdown, in several senses

Meanwhile we are counting down to the British Grand Prix and those in the media who perennially delight in predicting the death knell of the event at Silverstone are returning to their keyboards with news of a break-clause in the contract that is set to be triggered by the BRDC prior to the event.

So what does this mean and is it the end for the British GP?

The current contract when it was announced, seemed surprisingly long, stretching past 2020. Bernie Ecclestone is no fan of Silverstone and especially the BRDC and never forgave the club for a personal slight he suffered many years ago at the hands of one of the old school aristocratic members. So Bernie always played super-hardball where Silverstone was concerned.

But CVC's Donald Mackenzie did not want the death of the British Grand Prix on his watch and a long deal was secured in 2009, but the problem from the BRDC's side was that it was very optimistic about the future over 17 years and with a 7% annual escalator on the fee and no way of recouping revenues apart from ticket sales, the long term position was unsustainable.

Tempering this optimism was a break clause, a reality check, which had to be triggered by the time of the 2017 event for the event to end in 2019.

As things have transpired with the sale of F1 by CVC to Liberty Media, this creates a possible opportunity to terminate this unsustainable contract and sit down to negotiate a new one. Silverstone cannot afford to continue and this is their only way out. If it transpires that they cannot reach a new agreement with Liberty then that will be the end of the British Grand Prix, but that is something no-one wants to see, not least because most of the F1 teams are based in the UK.

It would not mean the end of the British motor sport industry as that is a very robust business with many world class operators who supply technology and services all around the globe and that would not change. The F1 teams would still race at 20 venues around the world in the elite level category and all the expertise that derives from that and rally and other elite series would still trickle down.

Many fans and even some people working in F1 have no idea of the global scale of the business motorsport is and the UK is a well established world leader, with or without a home Grand Prix.

However it would send out very negative signals. The British Government has got itself in enough of a mess at the moment with unnecessary elections, Brexit, austerity measures on public services and other issues to have any time to consider helping the BRDC to fund a Grand Prix. The timing for that is all wrong.

So it's down to the BRDC and Liberty to find a way forward that doesn't send out the wrong signals to other promoters.

Carey said in a recent issue of the FIA's AUTO magazine that his administration will prioritise the historic venues that give the sport's its charisma and roots, so the BRDC will hope he puts his money where his mouth is.

Race hosting fees are costed-in aggressively in Liberty's business model; it's a key lever for revenue growth and so they cannot afford for promoters to come to them en masse demanding a cut in hosting fees. Some countries have long contracts with break clauses, others do not, so there doesn't appear to be a risk of a stampede if the BRDC does take this course of action.

What Liberty is trying to do is work with the promoters to create more value for fans around the event, to help increase the sale of tickets on the basis that fans get more for their money. Using a music industry analogy, it's like the difference between paying £50 to see a top act in concert for two hours and £250 to see a Music Festival.

All the noises from Chase Carey and Sean Bratches are around creating festivals around the F1 Grands Prix. They will invest to promote and collaborate to create an upside for both themselves and their promoters. That would be a sustainable model, if they can pull it off.

Some venues will succeed more than others in that, hence Liberty CEO Greg Maffei's coolness about Baku, for example.

Austrian GP in numbers

The 30th Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix will be the fourth to take place at what is now known as the Red Bull Ring, its predecessor being seven-time GP host from 1997-2003, the A1 Ring.

After a wild Azerbaijan GP, we've had four different race-winners in the first eight races of the season and three different victorious constructors (Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull). As a result, this has been the most competitive-ever opening in a turbo-hybrid (2014-present) era season heading into Austria.

Ten races have been run on this track layout, and over those races four winners started on pole, with four other winners having starting from third on the grid. The lucky number here seems to be 14th; the driver starting 14th has finished on the podium six times in the last 29 Austrian races.

Daniel Ricciardo is now accomplished at winning from a starting position outside the top-three, winning in Azerbaijan from 10th on the grid.

All of Ricciardo’s five wins have come from a qualifying position below third, whereas championship leader Sebastian Vettel has never won from outside the top-three. Ricciardo’s 35-race streak of Q3 appearances is the longest active streak in F1, stemming from the 2015 Italian GP; on the other hand, Red Bull counterpart Max Verstappen has retired from four of the last six races.

Austria has boasted a few memorable endings, including the fourth-closest ever F1 finish when Elio de Angelis beat Keke Rosberg to the line by 0.050s in 1982 and the 2002 Ferrari farce, when Rubens Barrichello, having led 69 of 71 laps, slowed to allow Michael Schumacher to overtake in the final 100 metres. Team orders were banned from 2003-2010 as a result.

Lewis Hamilton won last year's race with a last lap pass on rival Nico Rosberg, and Hamilton has never finished below second in Austria. If he takes pole here he could tie Schumacher's all-time pole record of 68 at his home race, the British GP, which follows Austria.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas remains the only driver to start in the top-three in every race this season and he carries a 100% points-scoring record in Austria.

Hamilton and Vettel are carrying the longest current active finishing streaks coming into the weekend with 13 races of classification.

Nine different constructors scored points in Azerbaijan, the fourth occasion this has occurred including the 2010 European GP, 2012 Malaysian GP and 2015 Russian GP. The only non-scoring team was Renault, out with a double retirement. Other than Mercedes, only Sauber and Mercedes brought both cars home intact.

Force India's Sergio Perez retired from Baku after a crash with Esteban Ocon, ending a 37-race finishing streak for the Mexican (four short of Nick Heidfeld's record). He has never qualified in the top-10 on this track, and has never out-qualified a team-mate here either.

Rival Williams has a previous polesitter in Felipe Massa, who qualified first for the 2014 race, while team-mate Lance Stroll won two out of the three European F3 races in Austria last year.

Former Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg comes into this weekend having retired from two of the last three grands prix, while Jolyon Palmer is still seeking a point after his car failed to finish at Baku.

With Haas' Kevin Magnussen's seventh-place finish in the previous race helping the American outfit jump the French manufacturer, only Sauber and McLaren sit below Renault in the constructors' championship.