SPIELBERG, Austria — The Austrian Grand Prix saw Mercedes return to the top of the podium, only this time it was George Russell standing there for the first time since March’s season-opener in Australia.
Subsequently, his 19-year-old teammate Kimi Antonelli has been on a tear.
But Russell benefited from a critical moment in qualifying. Max Verstappen, who went on to finish second in an upgraded Red Bull, crashed at Turn 9 on Saturday. Russell lifted off the throttle in accordance with the single-yellow flag but continued his lap, while Antonelli mistakenly thought they were double-yellow flags and abandoned his.
Track position and bold pit-strategy decisions aided Russell’s victory, narrowing the gap between him and Antonelli in the driver standings to 40 points heading into the British Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, on the heels of Lewis Hamilton’s big win in Barcelona, Ferrari faced questions about its lack of pace, and the pecking order among the frontrunners has become more muddled as the development battle continues.
With just three races to go before the summer shutdown, there’s plenty to unpack after a busy weekend on and off the track in the Styrian mountains. Let’s dive into your post-Austrian GP questions.
Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Can Mercedes keep ahead of the upgrade packages that their competitors are continuing to bring in? — joydeep.biswas
A technical development battle is unfolding. It is skewing the field and making it harder for midfield teams to catch up. As Charles Leclerc noted in Austria, “As a whole, it’s difficult to understand the pecking order this year.”
The rate of development at Ferrari is different to that at McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes, as the Italian team hasn’t exactly slowed down on the upgrades. Typically, there are ebbs and flows across an entire season, big upgrades spaced out with some smaller bits in-between. Mercedes’ last big upgrade came in Montreal at the end of May, and for Red Bull before Austria, its last of that magnitude was in Miami at the beginning of May.
“It’s a race of upgrades, a consistent pattern from a competitiveness point of view,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Saturday, “and I think this sets for us the usual requirement and demand in terms of bringing our own upgrades.”
Mercedes doesn’t have an upgrade planned for its engine, team boss Toto Wolff said after Sunday’s race. But there are updated components coming on the chassis, with “small enhancements here and there,” he added.
Mercedes still holds an edge over the other three front-runners, but being able to consistently develop its car package will be critical. A component to keep in mind is the cost cap, which limits spending across a multitude of areas (much of it heavily focused on car performance). Teams need to strategically decide how they spend their money and when.
There are 14 race weekends to go, so it looks likely that Mercedes is spreading its upgrades across the season. It can’t afford to stay stagnant, regardless of the edge it has.
Madeline Coleman
Is Aston Martin completely lost? They seem to be the worst car on the grid, even worse than Cadillac. — James
This season was supposed to be the year Aston Martin finally made the step to become one of the leading teams, the stars aligning with its state-of-the-art factory, exclusive engine supply from Honda and a car designed by Adrian Newey.
The reality has been starkly different. Design and production delays caused Aston to miss the start of preseason testing. Once the car did get on the track, it proved both unreliable and slow, with Newey — Formula 1’s greatest-ever car designer, now Aston’s team principal — laying bare its issues in Australia.
Fernando Alonso managed to snare a point in the madness of Monaco earlier this month, but a last-row lockout in Austria proved just how far off the pace Aston remain.
There is a glimmer of light. In an interview published on Aston’s website on Tuesday, Newey confirmed a major car upgrade — what is being talked about in the paddock as essentially a B-spec car — is in the works for the Hungarian Grand Prix later this month. Instead of bringing lots of little updates for the car, the team has put all its efforts into one big update package.
Fernando Alonso finished 18th in Austria, while teammate Lance Stroll did not finish. (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)
In the interview, Newey explained the car was “quite a long way overweight,” and that the team was struggling with “tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years.” It led to parts being ordered at the wrong time because of the “failing” system, per Newey. It’s a similar issue that Williams has combatted in recent years, undoing years of simply ‘making do’ and underinvestment to get the facility to a place where it’s fully fit for purpose.
The updated car is focused on getting very close to the weight limit, as well as redeveloping many of the aerodynamic surfaces. Newey didn’t want to state any firm targets for where it should take the team. “We’re predicting a large step, but I’m reluctant to put specific numbers out there,” he said. “We’ll have to see when the car gets on track.”
A lot hinges on the update, particularly when it comes to the future of Alonso who, at 44, knows he is nearing the end of his F1 career. He’s already hinted that next year could be his last, and spoke in Austria about considering whether he wants to race in F1 next year or to pursue something else.
“It’s very important,” Newey said of the update. “Fernando is really looking forward to the upgrade and, if it performs we hope he’ll be in the cockpit for another season.”
Luke Smith
What actually is going on with McLaren — Joel O.
Stella said Saturday after qualifying that McLaren is “at least two months of development” behind the other teams, if not three months to be able to catch up.
“There’s only one way of doing so, which is to out-develop competitors,” he continued. “We need to rev our engine higher, we need to have more intensity in the business, we need to be good at delivering effective solutions. What I see in the pipeline is very promising, especially in terms of aerodynamic upgrades.”
Oscar Piastri finished fourth in Austria. (Darko Bandic / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
McLaren has regularly brought upgrades, but they’ve varied in scale. Some haven’t been used, like its version of Ferrari’s rotating rear wing. It’ll take more than a single upgrade package to close the performance gap, considering the unfolding development battle. McLaren also feels it’s in a deficit with the engine, Stella said Saturday.
McLaren need to work on generating more downforce with its car and determining why it faces a speed deficit in the engine. According to Stella, the team faces around a three- to four-tenths of a second gap to Mercedes.
Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth in Austria, said that was the maximum for the team, adding they were surprised to beat Ferrari. “Strategy probably helped us out with that, but the pace was a little bit stronger than them, but clearly not strong enough to go and get Mercedes,” he said.
In order to contend, McLaren needs to step up its development game. With a 143-point gap in the constructors’ standings to leaders Mercedes, the Silver Arrows currently look untouchable.
Madeline Coleman
Do you believe the rumors that Nikola Tsolov has a seat at Racing Bulls next year? If so, who would he replace? Liam Lawson’s doing well and Arvid Lindblad is young and talented. I don’t think Isack Hadjar is going anywhere as well. — Murray C.
Red Bull has long prided itself on the success of its junior program, producing drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen. But it has certainly gained a reputation for cycling through talents very quickly and having the next young driver on standby for a seat.
Next in line within the Red Bull junior setup is Tsolov. The 19-year-old Bulgarian was runner-up in Formula 3 last year and has made a scintillating start to his Formula 2 career, scoring four wins in the opening six rounds. His feature race win in Austria puts him just two points off the points leader, Gabriele Mini, heading to Silverstone.
Tsolov is building a strong argument for a future F1 opportunity. But there’s nothing set in stone with Racing Bulls for next year.
Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov celebrates victory at Albert Park Circuit in Formula 2 earlier this year. (Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images)
The team has started this year very well with both Lawson, who looks back to his best after the bruising Red Bull demotion last year, and Lindblad who is very highly rated within the Red Bull setup.
There was a bit of tension between the pair in Austria as they fought over ninth and 10th, but that firmly put Racing Bulls as the top midfield team — a title it has coveted for years but struggled to realize. It’s a good problem to have.
As I noted in my round-up last week, there’s plenty of moving parts to the driver market that make it unwise for anyone to lock plans in too firmly just yet. But when the time comes for some movement at Racing Bulls, then Tsolov is doing everything right so far to ensure he’s at the front of the queue.
Luke Smith