Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Austrian Grand Prix

Photo by Leonhard Foeger from Reuters

I don’t think it’s a surprise that the weekend that had the best racing was the race that was on an actual track wide enough for F1 cars.

More of those and less of the street circuits, please.

Here are the winners and losers from the Austrian Grand Prix.

Losers

5. Everyone Who Couldn’t Keep All Of Their Wheels On The Track

Look, I get it.

These are hard cars to drive. The track limits are stingy. And I don’t want to go to bat for the FIA who I often disagree with.

But it really, really isn’t that hard.

The rules are simple. If all four wheels go off the track, it’s a track limits violation.

And I know turn 10 is very fast and not so easy to keep on the circuit, but Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc finished 1st and 2nd, and they didn’t have a single track limits violation.

So it was clearly possible!

Yeah. I don’t feel bad about the drivers who got penalties.

4. Sergio Perez

The only reason he isn’t higher on this list is because he had a fantastic drive on Sunday and ended up finishing 3rd, but we can’t ignore his Friday qualifying.

The last four qualifying sessions, Max Verstappen sat on pole position.

In those same sessions, Perez has not even made it to Q3.

Perez is not the same level as Verstappen, and we don’t need to pretend that he is.

But man, you have to be better than that when you’re in the fastest car.

I’m not sure if Red Bull will remove Perez as the 2nd driver, because they’re still running away with the constructors championship, but the fact that it’s being considered does not bode well for Checo.

3. Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki can be a little bit forgiven, because that Alpha Tauri car is a total disaster.

But his aggressive nature got him into a first lap accident, and got him multiple track limits penalties too.

Not the best weekend for Yuki.

2. Kevin Magnussen

In a weekend where Nico Hulkenberg had a ton of pace and even qualified 4th in Sprint Qualifying, Magnussen was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

And Austria is a track that he actually really likes and usually does well at.

He’s being handily beaten by Hulkenberg, and this is a contract year for Magnussen.

Something to keep an eye on…

1. Oscar Piastri

It’s difficult for a rookie in F1. It’s especially not easy when you’re not in a great car, and this weekend Lando Norris had the new upgrades while Piastri didn’t.

But is it time to start talking about what a poor season Piastri is having?

This man was a rookie F2 champion and was so highly sought after last year he created a boatload of drama around it.

And so far through this season, he has 5 total points and is behind Alex Albon in the standings, despite Albon being in a worse car.

I’m not above it, by the way.

I thought Piastri was having a fine season until I saw his terrible race Sunday and figured out that he actually has not been good at all.

There’s still plenty of time, and he’s still a promising talent, but we need to call it like it is right now.

It’s been bad.

Winners

5. Logan Sargeant

He only finished 13th, and still finished behind his teammate, but this was actually a good race from Sargeant after quite a few weeks of torrid races.

Hopefully for Sargeant it turns a corner and leads to a string of good performances.

4. Max Verstappen

Of course Verstappen won, he always does.

But he won by so much that he decided to take a massive risk and pit on the second to last lap, knowing it could go wrong and lead to a poor pit stop and possibly lose him the race, all so he could get the fastest lap.

He even said on the radio that he was enjoying the battle for 16th as he was about to lap them all.

He’s racing this year on easy mode.

3. Fernando Alonso

A quiet weekend with zero track limits warnings and a 5th place finish.

Another example that you can keep all four wheels on the track and still get a good finish here.

Weird!

2. George Russell

Russell’s qualifying on Friday was very bad, and he got stuck in a DRS train for a lot of the race, but despite that he was still able to end up with a 7th place finish and was generally faster on Sunday than Lewis Hamilton.

That’s why Sunday is worth all the points.

1. Lando Norris

I’m not sure if it was the new McLaren upgrades or simply Lando Norris at Austria, but he was a man on a mission this weekend.

Great qualifying sessions in all sorts of conditions, and a fourth place finish in the race.

Not to mention some much, much needed points for McLaren in the constructors championship.

If only every race was in Austria.