Austria Race Reaction
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
Yet another penalty-filled day at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday, as Max showed the world why the track bears his team’s name - again adding to his total win count to make it 42, now surpassing the legendary Ayrton Senna.
Elsewhere on the grid, it felt like a challenge to dodge the wrath of the FIA. During the race, seven drivers were hit with 5-second time penalties, the first of which being Lewis Hamilton. Post-race, the FIA dished out a further twelve, with Esteban Ocon coming off the worst with a 30-second time penalty. He does seem to be a magnet for this sort of thing!
There’s a lot to get through, so let’s have a look at the best bits:
Dutch dominance continues
The Bulls have done it once more! Max took his usual spot on the top step of the podium, with teammate Pérez in third.
Verstappen drove a commanding race, although his streak of 249 consecutive laps led was ruined by that of Charles Leclerc.
The team decided to make a slightly risky move by pitting their number 1 driver on the penultimate lap for softs in order to go for the fastest lap of the race. This ended up being a good team decision, as the Dutchman set a purple lap as he crossed the line to take the victory - over a second faster than the next fastest lap by Pérez.
Turns out we didn’t even need to ask the question!
Will another team claim a victory this season? It certainly isn’t looking a likely prospect!
Norris hype-train builds speed
Making the very most of McLaren’s new upgrades, the young Brit finished an astounding fourth, after being pushed up a position by Carlos Sainz receiving a penalty.
This was Lando’s fourth point-scoring finish so far this season, compared to teammate Piastri’s two, a clear indication of his seniority and growing experience within the team.
Aston Martin quietly fall behind
The team in green are seemingly being caught up to in the R&D race by the likes of Mercedes and it’s a safe bet to say that Fernando is itching to achieve win #33.
The 41-year old’s promise of a podium every race has faded somewhat, as the team struggle to keep ahead of Mercedes and, even, McLaren as of late.
Alonso has gone on record with regards to the car’s pace, stating: “We need to understand why”
Image: @AstonMartinF1 on Twitter
With the team’s home Grand Prix at Silverstone coming up, it will be interesting to see what upgrades can be brought to restore AM’s podium-sitting status.
Ferrari get competitive again
Tifosi the world over let out a collective sigh of relief as the boys in red put in their best performances yet to come home P2 (LEC) and P6 (SAI). After a rather disastrous start to the season, this is what the team needed and it’s put their all-time podium count to a whopping 800 thanks to Charles Leclerc claiming P2.
But we needn’t explain how they felt - take a look for yourself!
This puts the prancing horse only 21 points behind Aston Martin in the constructors championship - will Italy be able to best Britain?
Hopes sink further at Alfa Romeo
After keeping on both the promising and youthful Zhou Guanyu and the experienced 10-time race winner Valtteri Bottas for 2023, surely the only way was up for the Swiss team. Despite this, they have had an objectively miserable campaign so far this year, scoring a measly 9 points. In fact, they scored that many in just the opening round at Bahrain last year, so it’s been a bit of a fall from midfield grace.
This aside, you can’t help but notice and admire the team’s work ethic and resilience to obstacles like this.
So, it’s fighting talk from Alfa Romeo for the British Grand Prix - only time will tell if they can deliver.
Challenges in the rest of the field
Haas: At a track that usually nets the team good results, Haas broke this trend by having Hulkenberg retire with a terminal power unit failure on lap 13. Dane Kevin Magnussen wasn’t able to even approach the top 10, finishing in 18th - only one position higher than he qualified.
Alpha Tauri: Despite some impressive recent performances from their Japanese frontman, the Red Bull sister team struggled more than ever in Austria. With a lack of upgrades, the team had no illusions as to how they would fare against the rest of the grid - both drivers received time penalties for ignoring track limits and Tsunoda had some severe damage after breaking his front wing on Ocon’s Alpine at Turn 1 on the first lap and then subsequently locking up and understeering into the gravel trap at Turn 4 moments later. Penalties, damage and general lack of pace meant a P19 and P17 finish for Yuki and De Vries respectively after post-race penalties were applied.
Image: @AlphaTauriF1 on Twitter
