Austria 2023 Review

By Gavin, Aiden and Chelsea

Driver of the day

Gavin – Whilst Lando Norris had a great day out, my choice is Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari man had a Q1 for the ages – an issue on his very first lap of qualifying saw him in the pits for almost the entirety of the first session only for him to come out for one lap, one chance, and he nailed it. Fastest lap. Superb. Eventually qualifying third, he did not have things his way with the first pit stops under the safety car but he came out and blitzed the cars around him. Late in the race he fought off Sergio Perez before the vastly superior Red Bull finally got past, but too late to catch the other Ferrari of Cherles Leclerc who finished second. Charles owes that podium finish to his team mate. Post race drama saw Carlos penalised 10 seconds for track infringements which dropped him down to sixth but that overlooks what a great drive that was from the “Smooth Operator” who, if he can race like that more often, could push Ferrari on to more of a challenge. He is looking a lot happier in the car at the moment and the Ferrari appears to have taken a step forward whilst their realistic competition of Mercedes and Aston Martin have gone backwards.

Aiden – Lando Norris’ love affair with the Austrian Grand Prix continued at the weekend. He’s been on the podium twice before, including his first top-three finish in 2020, and this year, armed with some McLaren upgrades, he ended up in P4, his highest finish of the season. He didn’t have the greatest start, falling behind Lewis Hamilton on the race to turn one, but from there he drove an excellent race to finish P5, before being promoted to P4 as Carlos Sainz was demoted.

Chelsea – Max Verstappen. Utterly dominant and unmistakably in control the entire weekend. Verstappen took the crown in both qualifying sessions, the sprint race, and the main event, as well as a bonus point for fastest lap. In a race that was dominated by some terrific battles in his figurative rear view, Verstappen was on a different planet. What a run. Special mention to Lando Norris who qualified P4 and P3 for sprint and race respectively, and put in an impressive performance to finish 4th (eventually).

Moment of the weekend

Gavin – Max Verstappen with the fastest, and last, lap of the race. Max is a driver who is operating on a different level to everyone else, and coupled with a team high on confidence you witness a perfect pit stop and final lap that just blows the opposition away. Wow! No one would have put money on Red Bull allowing their race leader to do that. But they did. And they got him out ahead of second placed Charles Leclerc by four seconds. Words cannot describe how good a lap that was – the way Max approached it, the way the Red Bull team facilitated it, and then the lap itself! And there are those of us who doubted that the fastest lap point would ever provide anything of substance… we were so wrong.

Aiden – 9:46pm local time, Sunday night.

Jonny Bairstow wasn’t the only sportsman to go wandering out of his zone at the weekend. Right from the start of practice, through qualifying, the sprint and then into the race, drivers just couldn’t avoid exceeding track limits. Race control was tasked with reviewing over 1,200 instances during the race of cars leaving the track at turn 9 and 10. Out of these, the stewards declared 83 firm cases of track limit breaches. It meant that the finishing order was purely provisional and a full 4 hrs 51 mins after that, the final classification came through, with winners and losers throughout the pack.

Chelsea –  “Lewis, the car is bad. We know. Please drive it.” Hamilton’s frustration with the W14 was only exacerbated when he was hit with a five second penalty for exceeding track limits. He was shut down swiftly when Toto Wolff jumped on the radio and told him to quit his bellyaching.

Hot take of the weekend

Gavin – McLaren are back, well, at least one McLaren is… Lando Norris had a superb drive in an upgraded car which proved competitive if not fast enough to really make something happen. At times over the weekend his team mate Oscar Piastri looked in good shape but until both cars have all the upgrades in time for the next race at Silverstone we won’t really know how well he is coping in his rookie season.

Aiden – If you put Shane van Gisbergen in a AlphaTauri right now, he’d beat Nyck de Vries. Don’t @ me.

Chelsea – Despite the obvious, this was one of the best races of the season for me. Perez v Russell, Gasly v Hulkenberg, Hamilton v Perez, Sainz v Norris… there was barely time to grab a cup of tea and a biscuit between battles. Constant entertainment, and a load of fun.

Cold take of the weekend

Gavin – Track limits and taking hours for the results of a race to be verified is a step backwards for the sport. We wanted racing and excitement, and we got racing and excitement – the unintended consequence of that is you have drivers not on the perfect race line which means they run the risk of exceeding track limits as the cars are thrown around in attack and defence. F1 has always had teams protesting results and decisions, but the track limit infringements this weekend have taken it to a new level of farcical, and while I can understand why these rules are there it is the enforcement that is not working. There is also a massive difference between taking shortcuts compared to driving along by yourself and getting penalised because of the track layout and the weather conditions combining to make you run wide. If there are so many infringements then I would have to say the problem is with the rule and the track.

Aiden – If you put Liam Lawson in an AlphaTauri right now, he’d beat Nyck de Vries. Who’s with me?

Chelsea – It’s not a particularly hot take to say that the rules around track limits at Red Bull Ring need to change. With 1200 potential track limit infringements for the stewards to assess, six drivers demoted at the end of the race, and full results not confirmed until five hours after the chequered flag, the status quo is not sustainable. Complicating matters is the fact that the track is shared with Moto GP, making gravel runoffs impractical. Technology isn’t yet at the level of tennis or cricket where we can apply penalties almost instantaneously, so what’s the solution? Bolt-down sausage kerbs? Good old-fashioned road cones? With Austria securing races through to 2030, I presume someone has a better idea than that.

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