Having made its return to the F1 calendar in 2014, the Spielberg track sees drivers set the lowest lap times of the year as they dip below the 70-second mark.

Following recent resurfacing works at the Red Bull Ring and steady improvement from the current breed of 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged cars, the lap record – a 1m07.908s clocked by Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher in 2003 – is even expected to fall.

“The Austrian track is very short, there’s not that many corners,” Vettel said. “It’s incredibly important obviously to get every corner right. I think there’s about only seven or eight corners [actually nine].

“The lap is fairly short so you do a lot of them [71 during the grand prix]. It’s important to find a rhythm pretty quickly and just go with it, especially in the race. When you start [a lap] on the wrong foot, it’s quite difficult to recover on that same lap.”

Ferrari has yet to secure a podium finish since Austria came back to the F1 schedule, with Vettel claiming the team’s best result of fourth place last year.