The F1 circus returned to the scenic Styrian mountains with drivers ready to battle it out on the Red Bull Ring. Against the vibrant backdrop of an impassioned orange army rallying behind their Dutch favourites, the sprint format unfolded once again. This time accompanied by challenging weather conditions and the ever-present issue of track limits.
Want to find out if your favourite driver was a winner or loser in this Austrian Grand Prix? Then keep reading!
Top of the class:
Charles Leclerc – Qualifying: 2nd| Shootout: 6th (started 9th)| Sprint: 12th | Race: 2nd
Saturday may not have been Charles Leclerc’s finest day, and he doesn’t shy away from admitting it himself. But when Sunday rolled around, he definitely found his mojo!
It was no shocker to see Leclerc shine on Sunday, at least when you take previous years in account. The Red Bull Ring seems to bring out the best in him, as this is his fourth podium finish on the track. In terms of the 2023 season, Leclerc’s silver medal finish gifted the prancing horses their first podium since April’s escapade in Baku, so it definitely was long overdue.
It will also be a welcome relief for the Scuderia and their fans to see a red car lead a portion of the race, but there’s still development needed to really start challenging Red Bull for wins.
Lando Norris – Qualifying: 4th | Shootout: 3rd | Sprint: 9th | Race: 4th
In the face of McLaren’s recent performance woes, Lando Norris wasn’t brimming with confidence. But with the help of the upgrade package, he managed to turn heads on Sunday. He crossed the line in fifth, after which a penalty for Carlos Sainz bumped him up to fourth.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Both McLaren and Norris have a knack for shining at the Red Bull Ring, and while this performance is a promising sign, I need to see more in order to confirm that McLaren is truly back in business.
It should also be said that it could (and probably should) have been a better haul of points for the weekend had Lando not hit anti-stall at turn 3 of the Sprint. Which saw him slide from 3rd to 10th, but overall it was a much better weekend for the #4 side of the garage
Sergio Perez – Qualifying: 15th | Shootout: 2nd | Sprint: 2nd | Race: 3rd
With lacklustre performances haunting Sergio Perez in recent weeks, the pressure was on for the Mexican driver. Adding to his woes, he fell ill ahead of the race weekend, sidelining him for the media day. Fortunately, he bounced back just in time to take the wheel on Friday.
Initially, it seemed like it would be more of the same as he missed out on Q3. But he kept his head down and pushed on to deliver an impressive second-place finish in the sprint, setting the stage for a recovery race from 15th to 3rd on sunday. A result extra well-received by the team, because this meant that Red Bull got to celebrate their first-ever double podium on their home turf.
While Verstappen’s dominance keeps championship hopes far out of reach for the Mexican, this weekend’s haul of points could be just what Sergio needed to regain his confidence and get his head back in the game.
Then for honourable mentions…
Once again, our favourite Dutchman finds himself with an honourable mention for a jaw-dropping performance. Why, you ask? Well, because a result like this deserves recognition! But let’s face it, if I kept ranking him at the top and singing his praises every week, it would get old very fast.
He reigned supreme throughout the entire race weekend, asserting his dominance by claiming pole position in qualifying and the shootout, before triumphing in the sprint and the main race itself. Let’s not forget to mention the daring pit stop on the penultimate lap that secured the fastest lap point! It needs to be said that Verstappen owned the race weekend once more, spurred on by the cheers of his orange army.
Sunday’s triumph marked his 42nd Grand Prix victory, with an impressive half of his career wins secured in just the past 14 months.
Also making this list is Nico Hulkenberg’s first two days. He was powerless to stop engine failure wrecking his race on Sunday, but the German driver put in a stellar lap in Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying to line up 4th and was running a strong 2nd until the rain stopped. A gamble to slicks paid off as Nico stopped the expected tumbled down to order to finish 6th.
Considering Haas’ race pace struggles, the 3 points secured has moved the team back up to P7 in the Constructor’s standings, but there’s still plenty of work to do for the team.
Struggle bus:
Esteban Ocon – Qualifying: 12th| Shootout: 8th | Sprint: 7th| Race: 14th (demoted from 12th)
Many drivers had weekends to forget at Spielberg, none more so than Ocon who for the second time this season was a penalty magnet.
11 occasions the Frenchman strayed track limits, picking up a 5 second penalty in the race and a total of 30 seconds after the chequered flag for his transgressions.
After a purple patch for Esteban which has seen him have the measure over teammate Pierre Gasly, this wasn’t his finest weekend in F1 despite him once again outscoring his compatriot thanks to the P7 in Saturday’s sprint.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 5th | Shootout: 18th | Sprint: 10th | Race: 8th
George Russell – Qualifying: 11th | Shootout: 15th | Sprint: 8th | Race: 7th
After two weekends of promising results where it seemed like Mercedes might just be closing in on the Bulls with an upgrade or two, that newfound pace vanished into thin air in the Styrian mountains. When your team boss has to come on the radio to remind you that they know the car is bad but to please just drive it, you know it’s not good news. So both drivers were left fighting tooth and nail to extract a decent result from their cars all weekend.
Hamilton faced the most struggles of the two drivers, earning himself two penalties for repeatedly exceeding track limits, which ultimately led to his demotion in the race result. Fortunately for Mercedes, they didn’t lose any points to another team because of it, as Hamilton’s teammate George Russell benefited from his misfortunes and was bumped up a position.
Kevin Magnussen – Qualifying: 19th | Shootout: 10th | Sprint: 14th | Race: 18th
Haas had their hopes set higher for Austria, as the Red Bull Ring is a track their car traditionally performs rather well at. Unfortunately for them, and particularly Kevin’s side of the garage’ performance fell short of expectations.
KMAG’s Free Practice pace disappeared in Friday’s qualifying session as he would end up on the back row of the grid, electing to start the race from the pitlane.
Saturday’s sessions started a bit brighter as Magnussen made the top 10 in the shootout, but still ended 6 places behind Nico despite him running medium tyres in SQ3. The Dane didn’t have much home to write about apart from falling foul of track limits and picking up a penalty.
The dishonourable mention of the day goes to…
The track limits. How could I not? It’s hilarious that in the pinnacle of motorsport 20 professional drivers couldn’t manage to keep their cars between the white lines. Throughout the race, there apparently were 1200 reports of drivers exceeding track limits registered, which meant that we ended up not receiving a finalised race result until five long hours later.
Perhaps it’s time for stricter penalties to deter such behaviour – or at least a more consistent application of penalties, so drivers don’t feel like they’re treated unfairly compared to their peers. Alternatively, implementing measures to slow down cars significantly when they veer off-track, like bollards or grippy track paint, could be considered to discourage drivers from colouring outside of the lines. Whatever the solution, it’s crucial to address this issue, mainly because how it was handled this weekend simply was not on.
We won’t have to wait long for the next race on the calendar as the teams will only be making a short hop across the channel in time to see lights go out in Silverstone this weekend. Want to tune in on all the fun? Be sure to sit at the ready to watch lights go out at 3pm UK time.
