Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Austrian Grand Prix

Photo from ESPN

The Austrian Grand Prix is usually one of my favorites on the calendar.

That’s why it was kind of a bummer that this one was just fine, all things considered.

But that doesn’t change that there were clear winners & losers from the race.

Losers

5. Pierre Gasly

You may not know this, but this was the first race Pierre Gasly finished and didn’t get any points.

He’s having quite a good year at Alpine, but the streak did end this weekend with a 13th place finish.

Couldn’t last forever, I guess.

4. Esteban Ocon

Haas apparently wants to replace Ocon.

And even though it wasn’t their best race ever, 16th place finishes are not going to help Esteban keep his job.

He needs a quick turnaround.

3. Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc is now farther behind his teammate in the standings than he ever has been in his entire career.

That’s not great!

It’s even worse when you consider his teammate is 41 year old Lewis Hamilton.

And even though Lewis is fantastic and is showing another renaissance in his career after a couple of down years, he is still 41 years old.

Charles is not doing well in this new era of regulations at all.

2. Fernando Alonso

Is it bad when you’re lapped by almost every car on track?

1. Cadillac

Is it bad when both of your cars brakes are actually on fire after 5 laps?

Winners

5. Isack Hadjar

It can’t be stressed enough how good it is that Isack Hadjar isn’t getting his doors blown off by Max Verstappen.

I’d say he’s the first driver to hold his own against Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo.

That was 2017.

Ever since then, the 2nd Red Bull seat has been a curse.

He’s not lighting the world on fire, but he’s also not performing horrendously.

4. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis is racing hard and clean and performing well.

Ferrari didn’t have the overall race pace in Austria, but he battled and got a good result.

Hopefully he can keep that up.

3. Oscar Piastri

Ever since Piastri’s win in Holland last year, things haven’t really gone his way.

But Sunday at Austria was pretty good for the Australian driver, finishing 4th and beating his teammate.

Hey. It’s something.

2. Max Verstappen

For the first time this year, Max had a car that could win the race.

And for the first time this year, it was fun to watch him battle up front wheel to wheel.

He may have even gotten the win if not for his crash in qualifying.

Still, he’s a joy to watch when he’s on fire.

1. George Russell

Boy, did Russell need that badly.

After his teammate won 5 straight races, Russell finally outgained Kimi Antonelli on points last race in Spain, but only due to Antonelli having a mechanical failure.

On track, Antonelli made a great move to get ahead at the end.

But Russell finally got the result he needed, earning pole (with an insane lap that was two tenths faster even with him slowing down), and leading wire to wire to get the win and bridge the gap in the championship.

From a confidence standpoint, Austria was absolutely massive.

Now, he goes into his home race this weekend at Silverstone with a chance to capitalize on it further.