George Russell returned to winning ways for the first time since the opening round of the season by triumphing at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix. Autoweek rounds up the main talking points from the eighth race of the year at the Red Bull Ring.
Russell back on top
George Russell triumphed in Formula 1’s season-opening round in Australia, and a strong drive in a rapid car pointed to the prospect of a spree of victories to follow. However, a spate of setbacks denied Russell a return to the top step of the podium. A mis-timed Safety Car in Japan, poor performances in Miami and Monaco, and a retirement from the lead in Canada all contributed to Russell sliding down the standings while teammate Kimi Antonelli hit a purple patch.
A reset ahead of Barcelona shook Russell back into contention and from pole position in Austria he broadly controlled proceedings on a baking hot afternoon to chalk up victory. Russell ran a conventional two-stop strategy and kept his cool to finally add a second win of the campaign, moving him back into second in the championship, and closing the gap on Antonelli to 40 points.
“It feels like a long time ago to be honest,” Russell said on his victory in Australia. “It’s been a tough couple of months, with some really tricky races, ones where it felt like everything was going against me, and some with some tough performances.
“For me, going into Canada, going into Barcelona from quite a low point, I needed a lot of resilience to get back and deliver some strong performances, so to get the last two poles, and the win here especially at a track where I don’t think is so suited to me, I’m really, really proud of that.”
It puts Russell in a good frame of mind heading to his home event in Britain next weekend.
Verstappen resurgent in updated Red Bull
Max Verstappen had his strongest result of the season, at a circuit where he historically thrives, in the heavily upgraded Red Bull RB22. Verstappen started from fifth position after a crash in qualifying, caused by an aero imbalance, and surged up third place through perfectly judged opening laps, before eventually overhauling the three-stopping Lewis Hamilton.
“I think what was satisfying is this was the first time I was fighting for the win.”
Verstappen extended both of his stints in a bid to have tire advantage over Russell in the closing stint but was unable to mount a sustained challenge, falling slightly short, having reduced a deficit that once stood at 10 seconds. Nevertheless, it was comfortably the strongest performance of the year from Verstappen and Red Bull, who had taken just one slightly fortuitous podium across the prior seven grands prix.
“I think what was satisfying is this was the first time I was fighting for the win,” Verstappen said. He pointed to “something happening on the rear axle” in the middle of the second stint “which made me lose pace” amid greater struggles on bumps and curbs—something which he and the team still needs to look into. But overall there was a positive stance.
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“It’s a bit of a shame but still to be that close to a win I think is a great effort from the team,” Verstappen said. “They worked really hard to get the upgrades on the car and this is the first time in a race where I felt really competitive and I could push a bit more. It’s been a pretty long road to be here and to sit here in the top three and have a real shot at [victory] is already very positive.”
Antonelli self-critical at messy grand prix
How to judge a grand prix in which Kimi Antonelli gained a place, and came within two seconds of victory, but still wound up only third. It was something of a curate’s egg for the 19-year-old, who retains the advantage in the championship, but left the weekend pointing fingers inwardly at areas where he was sloppy throughout the critical parts of the event. There was a scrappy start to the grand prix, dropping him to fifth, followed by a brake imbalance that left him ill at ease behind the wheel of the W17, but his pace on fresher tires in the final laps of the stints—having gone long for the offset—was extremely strong.
“It was a weekend where I started very strong, and because of that I kind of lowered the intensity a bit too much,” Antonelli said. “Coming to qualifying I felt a bit tense driving-wise, we were still up there but felt like I wasn’t driving that well and not as free.”
Antonelli would likely have been second in qualifying without the late yellow flag in Q3—he backed off believing he had a double yellow not a single yellow—but that would still have left him slower than Russell.
“Obviously started from P4, the first laps were really bad for me, then I really struggled with brakes and lost a lot of time as I started to do mistakes,” Antonelli said. “Then the second stint was a bit better and third stint was really, really strong, the pace was just there, but of course I fell a bit short.”
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Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli explained that “at the end of the first stint I did a couple of mistakes and lost 1-1.5 seconds each lap because one time I almost went off in Turn 4, one lap I went off in Turn 3.”
“I think it’s easy to say now, the mistakes were made, and without them I probably could have fought for P2 or even P1, but I need to make sure they don’t happen again.”
It was a winnable race for Antonelli and the swing of 10 points, coming after his Barcelona retirement, clearly stung.
Ferrari handed a reality check
After the high of a race-winning performance at the Barcelona Grand Prix came a reality check for Ferrari. From a promising front row spot on the grid, Charles Leclerc slipped to eighth, with Lewis Hamilton converting third into fifth, as both ran a three-stop strategy compared to their twice-pitting rivals. The SF-26 lacked the pace of the other front-runners, and it was a long afternoon behind the wheel for the drivers.
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Lewis Hamilton.
“We don’t know why we were so competitive on Sunday in Barcelona,” Hamilton said. “That’s a very strong track for me, I chose a strategy that from experience I knew would work. But then today I think we were hit more with reality which is we do still have a good car but we are down compared to Mercedes just on pace, they just are quicker and we have to keep developing. It doesn’t mean we can’t close that gap [but] that one win doesn’t mean we are going to be beating them all the time, it’s the opposite, we’ve got a lot of work to do to try. We still have to just continue to add performance to the car, particularly power is where we’re going to keep working.”
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur suggested that “we were probably too focused on Mercedes today” and that potentially compromised the outcome.
“We pushed too hard in the opening laps with both cars and then perhaps reacted too aggressively with the strategy, trying to stay with them when, realistically, that wasn’t our race today,” Vasseur said.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.