We look at the major talking points and takeaways from the 2020 Austrian GP which saw Max Verstappen claim another win.
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The 2021 Austrian GP saw yet another win for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who is now firmly established as the front-runner for the driver’s championship. Up front, the race was over well before it began. Verstappen led every lap and finished first quite comfortably ahead of everyone else. The Flying Dutchman’s excellent form aside, the race saw some other noteworthy moments too. The battle for points and podium spots remains as intense as ever. And with the double header now over, teams have a good idea of where it is they stand. That is important given that the summer break is soon approaching.
Here are the major talking points from the Austrian GP.
It seems like a long time ago when Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes claimed that win at Spain. Back then, the fear among fans was that through either strategy or speed, Mercedes would dominate the field yet again. To say those fears proved wrong would be an understatement.
One team has dominated since, but it’s been Red Bull. The team have now won five straight races since then, with four of those being won by Verstappen. The win at Austria was arguably the easiest, as while many jostled for second and third place, absolutely no one came close to the Dutchman.
Such was his lead towards the end that he pitted for fresh tyres just to ensure he got the extra point for clocking the fastest lap. That he had enough of a gap to do so shows just how dominant he was through the race. As things stand, he leads the driver’s championship by 32 points.
After the last race at this very venue, Hamilton said the Mercedes needed upgrades. Afterwards, team principal Toto Wolff said there would be no more work done on the car. Then James Allison, who will be the team’s Chief Technical Officer soon, said they do plan on upgrading the car after all. One thing is for certain – Mercedes need to find more pace from wherever they can.
Mercedes estimated a loss of about 0.230 seconds per lap against Red Bull on the straights of Speilberg. That’s a massive gap, and given the car had no upgrades at all this weekend, the gap did not reduce. To make things worse, Hamilton had to settle for a spot outside the podium after being overtaken by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
With only two races left now before the summer break, Mercedes need something new if they are to keep themselves in title contention for the second half of the season.
You must be doing something right if a seven-time world champion takes out time to praise you on team radio. And that’s exactly what Hamilton did after overtaking Norris in the early parts of the race. ‘Such a great driver, Lando’ were his exact words on team radio, and it isn’t the first time Hamilton has praised him either.
It’s possible Hamilton sees a little of himself in Norris – after all, both are British drivers who got their break in F1 at McLaren. But while it’s too early to compare the two, Norris certainly carried on his excellent season thus far. He continued his 100% points winning streak and claimed another podim – his third of the season.
As things stand, the young Brit is fourth in the driver’s championship – only three points behind Sergio Perez. It isn’t a stretch to say that a third-place finish come the end of 2021 is a possibility.
This point was mentioned in last week’s column too but it bears repeating. Russell started the race on eighth after a stellar show in qualifying but slipped down the grid early on. Towards the end he managed to claw back into tenth place but lost out to Fernando Alonso with only a few laps to go.
Afterwards, Alonso could be seen sharing words of encouragement with the young Brit. The Spaniard is clearly a fan, as was evidenced by him signing one of Russell’s helmets and adding ‘future world champ’ on it. For now, Russell will just hope to get among the points soon.
George Russell wanted a point… Instead, he got a hug from the man who dubbed him a future champion ?
So tantalisingly close to that first point for Williams#AustrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/JwTdYRf5YZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 4, 2021
It didn’t have too much of an impact on the race but stewards at Austria were certainly trigger happy. They handed out so many penalties you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a football game. Perez was the biggest victim, copping two somewhat harsh five-second penalties for hard racing against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Norris also got a five-second penalty for an incident which, again, involved Perez. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, also got two penalties for crossing the pit line while entering the pits. Rule adherence is one thing, but the number of interventions did seem extreme after a point.
