Although Max Verstappen may have prevailed once again last weekend in Spain, there were signs that the world champion may no longer be the favourite heading into race weekends for now.
But after Lando Norris felt he threw away a chance at victory at the start on Sunday, he gets the chance to make up for this just a week later at one of his favourite circuits.
And as the third sprint round of the year, this could prove a key weekend in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships approaching the mid point of the season.
Here are the talking points for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Norris on a mission
For the last two grand prix Sundays, Lando Norris has gone to bed with that frustrated feeling that he had a potential race victory slip out of his grasp.
In Canada, he lost out on an opportunity to pit under a Safety Car on the same lap as his rivals behind which ensured that Verstappen emerged ahead of him. Then, on Sunday, he beat the world champion to pole position but could not hold onto the lead on the long run to turn one, eventually finishing second after a race-long strategy battle.
McLaren clearly have a car capable of going toe-to-toe with Red Bull at this stage of the season, with Norris admitting that his team probably had the quickest package last weekend. He wants to start capitalising on that performance by winning races, and there is perhaps no better venue for that than the Red Bull Ring, one that Norris has always been strong around.
“It’s been one of my best tracks in terms of my own competitiveness and my most successful tracks,” Norris said of the Austrian track after Sunday’s race. “Every weekend we go into now, the car’s performing extremely well. We’re always there or thereabouts within a couple of tenths of pole, and that’s all we can ask for.”
Sprint weekend number three
This weekend is not only the second round in a triple-header of races culminating with the British Grand Prix next weekend, but this will also be the third sprint round of six taking place in this year’s championship.
Following the first two sprint format weekends in China and Miami, this weekend will be the first held at a track which has hosted sprints before. The circuit has been a sprint round ever since the very first sprint was held back in 2021 at Silverstone. With its many long straights leading to heavy braking zones, overtaking is naturally encouraged around the venue, meaning it lends itself well to the format compared to others on the calendar.
The 2022 sprint race was no thriller, with Verstappen leading every one of the 23 laps from pole where each of the top four drivers finishing where they started. Last year’s was a little more eventful, mainly due to rain, but Verstappen was once again untouchable and comfortably won.
This year, with the front of the field much more competitive than recent seasons, hopefully the level of intrigue through the Saturday morning sprint will be higher than it has been.
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Staying inside the lines
In recent years, the Red Bull Ring has become the epicentre of what remains Formula 1’s ongoing philosophical struggle with track limits. Despite a new zero-tolerance blanket policy being introduced when current FIA race director Niels Wittich assumed the reigns in 2022 in a bid to simplify and reduce the problem, the Red Bull Ring has seen a swathe of penalties in both 2022 and 2023.
In 2022, four drivers received penalties during the race for exceeding track limits at least four times in the grand prix, with the two final corners proving the main problem areas. But the situation got even worse last season. After six drivers were penalised during the race, Aston Martin protested the results, several further track limits breaches were counted. As a result, 12 additional time penalties were added to the final race classification to eight drivers. In all, over 100 race lap times were deleted for exceeding track limits.
After this ludicrous situation, the race stewards stated that they “very strongly recommend that a solution be found to the track limits situation at this circuit.” As a result, circuit management have introduced a new, temporary strip of gravel at the exit of turns nine and ten, which should provide a more natural deterrent and punishment for drivers who run wide. The gravel can be removed following this weekend to suit the needs of Moto GP when the venue hosts its round in August.
This weekend will therefore be a major test of what could be a solution to a major problem in the sport – not just at the Red Bull Ring, but for several circuits on the calendar.
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A mediocre track for Mercedes?
The Red Bull Ring has not been the best circuit for Mercedes in recent years.
After the team finished seventh and eighth in last year’s race, team principal Toto Wolff described it as a “bruising day for the team”. Lewis Hamilton said the team’s lack of pace compared to their rivals was “a surprise” to the team, while George Russell admitted to being confused why their car had run much better in Barcelona two rounds prior but not at the Red Bull Ring.
This year, the W15 has a very different fundamental aerodynamic concept to its predecessor, which makes it hard to make direct comparisons between Mercedes’ form last season and their potential performance this year. But after back-to-back podiums in Montreal and Barcelona, the team’s trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, is feeling positive about the team’s recent form.
“We’re encouraged by the fact the car has worked well at Montreal and here in Barcelona,” Shovlin said. “We need to find more speed to get right to the front, but we are working hard on that and should be able to continue to close that gap with further developments to come.”
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Towing tactics
Although Norris beat Verstappen to pole in Barcelona, Verstappen almost pipped him with the aid of a slipstream down the main straight from team mate Sergio Perez.
Many of the top positions on the grid separated by milliseconds, any extra kilometre-per-hour of top speed at a circuit with as many straights as the Red Bull has can make a major difference. Although Perez’s tow to Verstappen in Barcelona was unplanned and opportunistic rather than anything pre-arranged, teams may well attempt to make use of slipstreaming in qualifying.
In the past, many teams have rotated the roles of lead and chase driver between runs in a session. But any drivers who attempt to do favours for their team mates will have to make sure they don’t run the risk of impeding any of their rivals and earning a penalty which could compromise their weekend. Given that it is a sprint round this weekend, the sprint qualifying session on Friday afternoon could provide a useful dress-rehearsal for practicing such tactics.
No smoking
Although it is the Austrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull Ring has been synonymous in recent years with fanatical Dutch fans of Verstappen, who journey down from the Netherlands to support their world champion en masse.
The event has regularly seen the ‘Oranje’ lighting orange flares in the grandstands, which infamously led to alarming scenes of smoke drifting over the track on the formation lap in 2022. However, any flares that are let off this weekend will be in direct violation of the event’s terms of entry as the FIA changed its International Sporting Code late last year to “prohibit the unauthorised possession and use of pyrotechnics [flares] at FIA competitions.”
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Are you going to the Austrian Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Austria for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
How do you expect the Norris-versus Verstappen fight to unfold this weekend? Will Mercedes be in the mix and can Ferrari turn their recent slump around? Have your say in the comments.
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2024 Austrian Grand Prix
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