The Austrian Grand Prix: A Weekend of Controversy and Triumph

On Saturday, Oscar Piastri’s best lap was deleted due to track limits, a lap that, according to McLaren's Andrea Stella, was good enough for third place.

Andrea Stella summed up the frantic weekend perfectly: “We come away from this event in Austria with a double podium finish in the Sprint and a podium finish for Oscar in the main race, which confirms once again the trajectory of the team. We are now in a condition to contend for the top positions at every kind of circuit,” he said. “There’s quite a lot of confirmation of the strengths in terms of car performance and operations.”

“At the same time, there’s also quite a bit of frustration because of what happened on Saturday with the lap deletion for Oscar, and in the GP, with the collision between Lando and Max, which meant we could not see this battle going to the chequered flag. That would have been quite exciting.”

Looking back, many questions remain: What would have happened if Verstappen hadn’t moved over on Norris on the 64th lap, causing the contact that ended their epic wheel-to-wheel battle for victory? Or if Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri hadn’t collided on the first lap, compromising both their races? Or if Oscar had started from P3 on the grid instead of a penalized seventh?

Stella concluded, “We will make sure we use this frustration to be even more determined and motivated to make our strengths even stronger and be ready for the second part of the season.” However, something will inevitably change as Norris realized the ruthlessness of the F1 sport, this time embodied by a competitor like Verstappen.

The Race

For 53 laps, the race didn’t offer much excitement, but it suddenly came to life 18 laps from the chequered flag with a hard-fought battle for the lead between Norris and Verstappen. In the end, George Russell won, finishing ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz. Russell took advantage of a late-race crash between the two contenders for victory.

Norris made several attempts to overtake Max before tensions boiled over on Lap 64 when the pair made contact at Turn 3, resulting in both picking up punctures and having to return to the pits. While the McLaren driver sustained too much damage to continue, Verstappen rejoined the race but was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the incident. Despite this, he was able to retain his fifth position, having built enough of a gap from Hulkenberg in sixth.

Reflecting on the race, Norris could not hide his disappointment. “I thought it was a good race until then. I kept myself in the fight the whole time. It was easy to make mistakes but difficult to drive because of the windy conditions and things like that. I just feel let down. You want to keep driving, but the car was too badly broken. I did all I could, I gave a fair, respectful, on-the-edge battle, but that’s not what I got in return.”

“There are rules for what you’re allowed and not allowed to do,” Lando said. “He was doing things you’re not allowed to do and not getting penalised. I expect a tough battle against Max. I expected aggression and pushing the limits.”

“All three times he was doing stuff that could easily cause an incident. And in a way, he seemed a little bit desperate from his side. He doesn’t need to be, he’s got plenty of wins.

“I’m not surprised, but I just expected a tough, fair, respectful on-the-edge bit of racing and I don’t feel like that’s what I got. I respect Max a lot and what he can do and what he goes out and does every time he’s on track, but there are times when I think he goes maybe a little bit too far. And I feel like today was a little bit of that.”

Norris and Verstappen have long been known to share a good relationship off-track, but when asked if the incident is something the two of them would talk about, Norris stated clearly: “It’s not for me to say, it’s for him to say something. I did nothing wrong – he was the one in the wrong, so he’s the one that should say something, not me.”

Lesson Learned?

In Austria, Lando Norris had his first proper taste of how ruthless Max Verstappen can be in battle. How will that change their relationship going forward?

On the Other Side of the Garage

Oscar Piastri’s podium finish on Sunday confirmed the strong momentum of the team. “In the first stint, I didn't make quite as much progress as I would have liked. Obviously, my race was affected by the incident in Turn 1. I overheated the tyres a little bit, but then in the next two stints, it really started to come alive. I felt like we needed some more laps towards the end, unfortunately. After starting seventh, it was a good turnaround.”

But you could see the hurt in his eyes and hear the disappointment in his voice. “This is only my fourth podium in F1, but to get so close to a win hurts a bit.”

Regarding the battle with Sainz, he said, “Turn 6 was a happy hunting ground this weekend. I think I did three moves there around the outside. I had a bit more grip around the outside of 6 and managed to get it done. So, yeah, pretty happy with that.”

Looking ahead to Silverstone next weekend, Piastri added, “Last year was an incredible weekend for us as a team, kind of the start of our resurgence. We have got a strong car, and I think we’ve had a really consistent car wherever we’ve gone, so we can be pretty confident we’ll be in the fight.”