Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Austrian Grand Prix
Photo from the BBC
Austria always delivers.
Yesterday was an incredible race, and quite possibly the race of the year.
But while the race was great and there were winners, there were still some losers.
So let’s dive right in.
Losers
5. Max Verstappen
Verstappen still had a shot at the championship. Not because of Red Bull Racing, but because Verstappen is such an incredible driver.
That shot is probably done now, after a dominating McLaren performance and Verstappen being punted off the track by Kimi Antonelli at the third corner.
It was a long shot anyway, but I feel it’s over now.
4. Franco Colapinto
This was Colapinto’s 5th and “final” race of the 5 race trial Alpine gave him after he took over for Jack Doohan.
Those five races amounted to zero points, and on Sunday he almost took out second place in the race while being a lap down because he wasn’t paying attention.
His Williams tenure last year went well.
His Alpine tenure? Very, very poor.
3. Yuki Tsunoda
I know that second Red Bull is really difficult to drive, but Yuki shouldn’t be battling and crashing into Colapinto multiple times to be able to pass him.
It was another bad weekend in what has been a bad year overall for Red Bull.
2. Kimi Antonelli
Kimi Antonelli so far this year has shown that he has the makings of a superstar.
But he’s also only 18 years old still.
Mistakes are going to happen, as they did on lap one when he braked way too late, smashing into Verstappen and ruining his and Verstappen’s race on the first lap.
It’s a learning experience for him, but it’s also a pretty big screw up.
1. Williams
Williams started this year doing incredibly well.
But the month of June has been horrible for the British team.
And it was capped off by Carlos Sainz not even taking part in the race because his brakes were on fire, and Alex Albon running 6th before having to retire for a mechanical issue.
They’re still comfortably in 5th, but they need to find some form again, and fast.
Winners
5. Esteban Ocon
Started 17th. Finished 10th.
A great drive to get a point for the Haas driver.
4. Nico Hulkenberg
But even better than that is starting 20th and finishing 9th, which is what Nico Hulkenberg did.
Hulk is red hot right now.
3. Gabriel Bortoleto
But it was Hulk’s teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto, who had the marquee weekend at Sauber.
8th in qualifying. 8th in the race. His first ever points in Formula 1.
He deserves a result like that.
As I’ve said for the third week in a row now. If Audi comes in with a good car next year, they’re going to be fun to watch.
2. Liam Lawson
Lawson’s Red Bull career started horribly, and when he got dropped to Racing Bulls, it wasn’t going to well either, as the Kiwi driver was regularly beaten by rookie drive Isack Hadjar.
But in Austria, Lawson was the dominant of the two, with a great qualifying session, excellent race pace, and good tire management to one stop and finish 6th for a big chunk of points.
He needed that. I’m glad he got it.
1. Lando Norris
It’s fair to say that Norris has struggled with confidence in the middle of this title fight.
And while I didn’t love some of the radio messages yesterday, one thing is undeniable.
His race craft was absolutely excellent.
As Piastri put the pressure on over and over again, Norris defended perfectly, including an excellent switchback to get DRS and get the position back from Piastri at the only time Piastri overtook him.
He carried that to a race win, and now only trails the championship fight by 15 points.
But the confidence he had to have gained from wheel to wheel racing with his teammate and coming out on top is the most important metric of the weekend.
This should be one hell of a fight.
