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5 talking points from the Austrian Grand Prix

Mercedes dominant but not perfect, Leclerc podium can't mask Ferrari's flaws, a great weekend for McLaren and Norris, plus more talking points.

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5 talking points from the Austrian Grand Prix
Fuente imagen: Twitter.com/McLarenF1

Mercedes start well but have things to work on 

After strong form in Winter Testing, Mercedes went into the weekend as favourites to be the quickest team. That turned out to be the case. 

Fastest in all three practice sessions, they locked out the front of the grid by over half a second from Max Verstappen in P3. Valtteri Bottas had taken pole by just 0.012s from Lewis Hamilton, before the Brit got a 3-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags caused by his teammate at the end of Q3.  

Bottas comfortably led away as Hamilton quickly moved up to P3. Verstappen’s problem gifted him 2nd on lap 11 as Mercedes’ only potential challenger dropped out.  

There were times during the race where Bottas and Hamilton put a second a lap on the cars behind them to demonstrate their superiority over the rest of the grid.  

Whilst Safety Cars brought the field back together and Hamilton’s collision with Albon meant he received a penalty and dropped to 4th, Mercedes’ speed was scary for the opposition. 

However, a worry for the World Champions was the reliability concerns for both cars as Hamilton chased Bottas hard in the second half of the race. They were told to stay off the kerbs as the team saw gearbox issues and feared both cars may retire.  

Nonetheless, barring a spate of problems in the upcoming events, it looks set to be Bottas vs Hamilton for the championship once again. 

McLaren renaissance continues as Norris bags maiden podium  

Following a very difficult few years, McLaren made big strides forward in 2019 as they finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship. 2020 looks set to be another good year after a terrific showing at the weekend.  

In a very tight midfield battle with the likes of Racing Point, Ferrari and Renault, they starred. Lando Norris stood out in particular. 

Norris qualified a stunning P4, ahead of Alex Albon and all his main midfield rivals. That became P3 thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s penalty. 

Hamilton and Albon overtook him early on, but the young Brit had a solid gap to Perez as he led the best of the rest for battle in P4 following Verstappen’s DNF.  

Multiple Safety Cars followed and it led to huge battles with Perez, Leclerc and his teammate at various stages. An aggressive move on the Mexican in the closing stages was pivotal as a brilliant fastest lap on the final tour gave him his maiden podium. 

A gap of 4.802s to Hamilton who was awarded a 5-second penalty for the incident with Albon meant he took the final podium spot by 0.198s. It was a brilliant drive by the 21-year-old as he showed great race and qualifying pace, plus great offensive and defensive driving. 

Carlos Sainz struggled a small bit in comparison to his stablemate, but he confirmed what a good car McLaren has built with P9 in qualifying and P5 in the race. 

The fantastic result yesterday means McLaren sit 2nd in the Constructors' Championship after the opening race of 2020. 

A podium cannot mask Ferrari’s problems  

Ferrari knew the Austrian Grand Prix was going to be difficult for them – but the reality of how far off the raw pace of Mercedes they are was brutally exposed over the course of the weekend. 

Whilst Charles Leclerc secured a superb P2 thanks to some brilliant overtaking from him in the closing stages of the race on Perez and Norris, he was only on the podium because of a chaotic Grand Prix.  

On Saturday Leclerc scraped into Q3 in 10th and qualified 7th in Q3; a full 0.984s off Valtteri Bottas’ pole time and 0.920s off his own 2019 pole lap. Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q2 as the German ended up 11th. 

Before the first Safety Car of the race yesterday, Leclerc was 26s adrift of race leader Valtteri Bottas after 25 laps under green flag conditions. Vettel was a whopping 38s behind at that point. 

Ferrari is a long way behind Mercedes and Red Bull at the moment. On the evidence of Austria, they seem to be languishing in the midfield, with Racing Point and McLaren both slightly quicker.  

It’s clear they’re down on straight-line speed and have a draggy car. Their aero package is certainly not top of the class either. 

Their upgrades for Hungary will be absolutely critical for the rest of 2020 and into 2021. If they don’t make a big step forward, they’re in for a very tough 17 months or so.  

Mattia Binotto is a team boss who’s under serious pressure.  

Lots of unreliability opens up unexpected opportunities  

A race can always liven up when things go wrong for teams. We witnessed plenty of that at the opening race of the season yesterday. There was a big list of problems for multiple teams and drivers. 

  • Max Verstappen and Alex Albon – Electronics 
  • Daniel Ricciardo – Engine overheating 
  • Lance Stroll – Engine  
  • Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen – Brakes  
  • George Russell – Fuel Pressure 
  • Kimi Raikkonen – Loose wheel 
  • Daniil Kvyat - Suspension 

As well as a lot of various car problems, Sebastian Vettel’s spin allowed the likes of Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi (P18 to P9) to grab some valuable extra points in what is set to be a tough year for Alfa Romeo in particular. Debutant Nicholas Latifi just fell short of points in the Williams in P11 following all the issues in front of the Canadian.  

With Mercedes not looking bulletproof, an unpredictable season in terms of poor reliability looks possible on the evidence of the first event.  

Progress for Williams  

2019 was a brutal season for Williams as they were well off the rest of the field at almost every single Grand Prix and showed up late to pre-season testing, too.  

However, on track, things seem to be on the up this year. Pre-season testing went well as they clocked up good mileage and look much closer to the pack on the basis of what happened in Austria.  

Virtual and real-life star George Russell beat both Alfa Romeo drivers in qualifying as he missed out on Q2 by just 0.073s as the Brit got very close to both Haas cars. After Latifi crashed in FP3, he was last and half a second adrift of Raikkonen in P19. 

The improvement they’ve made from 2019 to 2020 can be shown from qualifying: Russell’s lap on Saturday was 0.737s faster vs last year’s attempt.  

The Alfas jumped Russell at the start as they showed better race pace vs their qualifying pace. Nonetheless, the Brit stayed close to Grosjean before the Frenchman went spinning. 

A number of retirements and Vettel’s spin moved Russell up to P12. He was holding off the German until a fuel pressure problem saw his race come to a premature end. Had he stayed in the Grand Prix until the end, he could have possibly nicked a point. Latifi benefitted from the nine retirements to end up 11th.  

Yesterday’s race may turn out to be Williams’ best chance to score points this year. Nonetheless, they’ve made good progress on a long road back to reaching a properly competitive position again.  

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