“Bottle that one.”
And for the second half of a Dre’s Race Review double header (And to be fair, when aren’t they these days?), it’s time for F1’s 11th race of the season, the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. With it, we had McLaren lay another beating on the field, while fighting amongst themselves, and the best day for the factory of Hinwil in years… all while likely dethroning Max Verstappen as Champion. Let’s get into it.
Sound Of Music Reference
Best to get that one out of the way. And if you’re more of the cynically minded F1 fans out there (And I know for a fact there’s many of them), you could make a case that this weekend was settled on Saturday when Lando Norris scored pole position by over half a second. The small print should be read here – Pierre Gasly spun out on his final run, causing a yellow flag in the final sector and killing the session off for half the Q3 runners, but I really don’t think anyone was beating a 1:03.9 anyway, Norris would go onto to top every session he took part in over the weekend – And FP1 stand-in Alex Dunne was P4 on debut!1
The first major flashpoint arrived at the start. Charles Leclerc took the bait from Piastri’s launch and coughed up P2, and then Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes locked up when he entered Turn 3 and clattered into Max Verstappen, taking the Dutchman out of the race – His first DNF since Australia 2024, 32 races ago2.
With it, this likely ends any real chance Verstappen has of winning the title. He now sits 61 points behind Piastri, and has only ever been an occasional race winner this season. The definition of the goldilocks team – Only excelling when conditions are perfect for their temperamental car for Max to extract the maximum out of. And with Tsunoda needing to be the anchor but having one of his worst weekends in F1, finishing two laps down in 16th and with a 10-second time penalty for spinning Franco Colapinto out, there’s little hope left in this team.
Anyway, we got an excellent early dice between the McLaren’s, with Norris holding Piastri back, lap-after-lap, all the way until their first stop on Lap 20. Piastri did come close, taking advantage of Norris running wide at the final corner and Piastri using all three DRS zones to have a crack into Turn 4, but locking up and nearly hitting his teammate. This led to what I called a “Papaya Rules” violation and a stern talking to from his race engineer. What was most startling from this fight though, was that they were racing hard, and they were still pulling away from Leclerc’s Ferrari in third, sometimes as much as half a second a lap.
Real talk, I think McLaren did Oscar a little dirtier than they needed to in this one. They were absolutely right to box Lando first – Generally, the lead car gets priority as winning comes first. But they gave Piastri a choice – An immediate 1.5 second deficit and a straight dogfight, or a four second deficit but with more tyre delta, four laps worth. Problem was, Piastri flatspotted his tyre, and the open air didn’t make him any quicker. Throw in a 3.4 second pitstop and Piastri’s actually down 6.5 seconds instead of four. Whoops.
To Piastri’s credit, he was quicker on the Hard Tyre and did get the gap down to within three seconds, before they wiped out that tyre delta by only boxing a lap after Norris did, to throw that delta away and come out 3.3 seconds behind again? It was a very, very safe strategy from McLaren. A luxury you can take when the Ferrari’s were 15 seconds behind, but it didn’t give Piastri the best chance of winning. The Aussie tried, getting within 1.2 seconds at the end as Norris had trouble negotiating traffic, but it never really felt like Piastri could make up what he lost.
No real harm done, McLaren had an easy 1-2 in the end. But the execution was still a little lacking, and I can see why Piastri felt hard done by. The good news here if you’re an Aussie supporter is, this was Lando’s best track, he’s always gone well in Austria, and Piastri pushed him extremely hard for most of the race. The down side is – This is exactly the weekend Lando needed.
I stand by what I’ve been saying most of the season – Norris’ issues as a driver are somewhat exaggerated, and for all the shit we’ve given him this season – He’s only down 15 and we’re half way through the season at Silverstone next week. This title fight is not a straight forward one and it will take many, many turns yet.
The Lightning Round
Charles Leclerc continues to bust his ass for little reward, but good to see Ferrari back on the podium, and arguably the best race Lewis Hamilton’s had in red so far, even if being 9.2 seconds behind Leclerc would normally be considered “bad”.
Is there a single joke I could write about Bernie Ecclestone replacing Mohammed Ben Sulayem that would be better than what was going through your head? Phew. PS: Carlos Sainz is out of the running, Ben Sulayem’s almost guaranteed a second term now. Have fun with that.
What a weekend for Kick Sauber. Gabriel Bortoleto made Q3 for the first time in his career, and held his eighth place all the way to the end of the race. He even took his mentor Fernando Alonso on, and just ran out of time as Lando Norris lapped them on the 69th lap of 70. With Hulkenberg following Gabby home in 9th after starting 20th, it’s six more points for Sauber that puts them just a point behind Aston Martin and three behind Haas in seventh. The last month has made Sauber look like a reinvigorated team.
Props to ol’ dirty Nando as well, easily his best drive of the season so far.
Which quote have you read more on social media today? Christian Horner talking about Piastri making love to Norris’ exhaust or Piastri talking about Alpine fucking him over?
Good for Liam Lawson for a career high P6 finish in Austria. More of that and he’ll be back in the Red Bu- LIAM, ISACK, DON’T ANSWER THAT PHONE
The Verdict: 6.5/10 (Decent) – Wasn’t bad this one. The Norris/Piastri fight was a solid bit of extended viewing, even if it didn’t quite hit fever pitch, and it was carrying the race from an intrigue standpoint. There’s little here for replay value, but in the moment, an enjoyable race. See you in Britain.
