Race Report: Russell resets at Austrian GP

George Russell has reset his championship bid with a win at the Austrian GP ahead of Verstappen and Antonelli. If you are a Russell fan and were hoping he could turn the corner and re-engage his title bid, you got your wish this weekend in Spielberg.

Win

A big win for George Russell and Mercedes, with a terrific qualifying lap for pole and then converting that pole into a race victory. George managed the pace, race, and tires in hot weather to secure the win and narrow the points gap to his teammate, Kimi Antonelli. Kimi had a rugged start to the race but recovered for an impressive drive to P3, just behind Max Verstappen. He missed the luck of two VSCs, which may have turned things around for him.

A win for Max Verstappen and Red Bull at their home race. With questions surrounding Max’s future at Red Bull, the developments seemed to have worked and gave Max a fighting chance for a win. He just ran out of tires and laps. Still, a great showing at the team’s home race.

A win for Oscar Piastri, who has been on the back foot of late but managed to finish P4 ahead of both Ferraris and his teammate, Lando Norris. It is not where McLaren wants to be, but Oscar has personally been struggling, so it is good to see him toward the front.

A win for Racing Bulls, with both cars making Q3 and then converting that into points finishes, with Liam Lawson in P9 and Arvid Lindblad in P10.

Fail

A tough weekend for Ferrari, who brought a new engine this weekend. You could argue they missed the strategy for Lewis Hamilton, but they most likely knew they would be on the back foot here with tire degradation, so they rolled the dice. It did not pay off, but the car just was not there for long-run pace on any tire compound.

A fail for both Cadillac and Aston Martin, with two immediate DNFs for the former and one DNF and a finish three laps down for the latter. Tough weekend, and this track punishes a lack of pace quickly.

A tough weekend for Haas F1 again, with both cars out of the points. Like Alpine, this track punished them. Both teams are fighting for points, but Racing Bulls are moving forward.

Also, a tough weekend for Audi, who have upgrades but are not able to capitalize on them, at least not at this track.

WTH

I am not sure what was going on with Liam Lawson’s car when he said it was on fire, but thankfully nothing happened and he brought it home in the points. Also, I am not sure why Cadillac is having such issues with their brakes catching fire.

Can Williams find some development cash to turn this season around? This was the year James Vowles said they were moving up the grid. It has been quite the opposite, and he has some very hard decisions to make.

Austrian GP Results:

Pirelli Report:

DARIO MARRAFUSCHI – PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR

“All three compounds available came into play today in the two- and three-stop strategies adopted by the teams at Spielberg. As expected, a one-stop strategy was not viable due to the high level of thermal degradation.

The two-stop strategies, on Hard and Medium tyres, were largely determined by the sets of tyres available to each team, carried over from Friday. The most effective approach proved to be the one that used Hard tyres for the final two stints, as adopted by the podium finishers.

Ferrari once again tried something different, stopping three times and also using the Soft, which, aided by a lower fuel load, delivered a solid performance.

While the first stop for the Ferrari drivers and Gasly was brought forward to exploit the undercut, the rest of the grid followed the pit windows we had anticipated. Conversely, the overcut attempted by some did not produce the desired results.

Even the VSC caused by Sainz did not change the picture, except perhaps for Antonelli, who pitted slightly early, losing the time advantage of stopping under neutralised conditions.

With such high track temperatures, the tyres experienced neither graining nor blistering, a sign that the development work carried out by Pirelli is clearly paying off on track.”