Analysis: Things we learned from the Austrian Grand Prix

Last weekend noticed groups and drivers head to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó analyses the classes we learned from the Spielberg race.

Winning streak – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen additional cemented his championship lead on house turf for his workforce. The Dutchman secured his sixth pole place, his first dash race victory and his seventh race triumph in the 2023 F1 season. The solely two races the place he didn’t win had been the Saudi Arabian and the Azerbaijan Grands Prix the place he completed second behind his workforce mate Sergio Perez.

Dominant – Red Bull scored their tenth consecutive victory yesterday, having gained the final race of the 2022 F1 season courtesy of Max Verstappen and each single race in the present championship marketing campaign.

It was the a hundred and first victory for the Milton Keynes-based outfit and their double podium end at the Red Bull Ring elevated the variety of their general podium finishes to 248.

Eye-catching kind – Verstappen was faultless yesterday, securing his seventh profession hat-trick (victory, pole and quickest lap). The reigning champion secured his forty second profession victory of which he gained 22 final yr and in the present season which highlights his and his workforce’s utter dominance in the present period of Formula One.

Resurgence – Following a tough begin to the season, Charles Leclerc’s P2 was Ferrari’s finest results of the 2023 season. The Scuderia achieved their 800th podium end in F1 with their heavily-upgraded automobile.

Sergio Perez may additionally go away the Red Bull Ring with a smile on his face following 4 tough race weekends that noticed him fail to progress into the final qualifying phase. The Mexican secured a second place in Saturday’s F1 Sprint and moved up the order from P15 to P3 yesterday.

Late push – Towards the finish of the race, Max Verstappen loved sufficient of a niche to make a pit cease in pursue of the quickest race lap. With two laps to go, the Dutchman rejoined the monitor solely three seconds forward of Charles Leclerc and went for the quickest race lap which he simply achieved with a time of 1m07.012s.

The Dutchman’s effort was over a second faster than his workforce mate Sergio Perez who posted the second quickest race lap. However, the comparability is unfair as the Dutchman had softer and considerably more energizing tyres.

Interestingly, Norris was solely a tenth of a second sooner than the two Ferrari drivers regardless of finishing his final pit cease a number of laps sooner than Leclerc and Sainz.

Never seen earlier than – That was what Charles Leclerc instructed in the post-race press convention concerning Ferrari’s latest improvement push. The Scuderia ditched its bathtub sidepod idea at the Spanish Grand Prix and launched a brand new entrance wing and an up to date flooring at the Austrian Grand Prix, two races sooner than deliberate.

The Monegasque didn’t disguise how content material he was with Ferrari’s improve plan as he achieved his finest end in 2023 along with his second-placed end. It was his second podium of the yr after securing a third-place end at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Fastest in the pit lane – At the Austrian Grand Prix, McLaren have proved to be the quickest in the pit lane after swapping tyres on Lando Norris’ automobile inside 2.1s. AlphaTauri have been not the quickest this yr when it got here to pit cease efficiency, however they managed to finish the second quickest tyre change after they serviced Nyck de Vries’ automobile.

In the standings for the DHL pit cease award, Red Bull discover themselves on the high, adopted by Ferrari and Alpine with Haas having proved the slowest by way of pit cease efficiency to date. The general finest tyre change was accomplished by Red Bull when the Milton Keynes-based outfit swapped tyres on Sergio Perez’ automobile in Spain (2.07s).

Technical points – With an influence unit concern forcing him to retire, Nico Hulkenberg’s 22-race ending streak ended as we speak. Overall, it was a constructive weekend for Haas because it scored three factors courtesy of the German’s sixth-place end in Saturday’s dash race. Despite some eye-catching qualifying performances, the American workforce has had a tough begin to the season because it solely scored on three events to date this season.

Track limits – Track limits have been considered one of the sizzling subjects over the weekend of the Austrian Grand Prix with the the entry and particularly the exit of the last nook prompting drivers to cross the white line.

Following the points in Fridays qualifying session, the drawback persevered in the race with greater than 100 lap instances having been deleted after drivers repeatedly exceeded monitor limits. According to the FIA, greater than 1200 potential offences needed to be reviewed by race management. The race stewards acknowledged that they had been unable to assessment all cased throughout the race.

Seven drivers had been handed out time penalties throughout the race, together with Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz. However, following a protest from Aston Martin, the FIA launched a assessment into the monitor limits violations and handed out an additional 12 penalties which unfold throughout eight drivers.

Perez unhealthy – Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez missed the Thursday media day to relaxation after falling sick on Wednesday evening. In the post-race press convention, Perez conceded that he was unable to relaxation over the weekend as he suffered fever each evening.

The Mexican had three lap instances deleted in the second qualifying session which meant that he missed out on Q3 on Friday. Perez due to this fact began the Austrian Grand Prix from P15, however he recovered in the race, having made use of his dominant Red Bull RB19. Following 4 tough races, this end result ended a run of three GPs and not using a podium for Perez.

Teams factors – Having gained each single race to date this season, Red Bull Racing discover themselves on high of the Constructors’ Championship. The workforce has collected 4 one-two finishes to date and gained the dash races each in Baku and Austria, they usually sit now atop of the standings on 377 factors, a whopping 199 factors away from second-placed Mercedes.

Aston Martin sit in third place on 175 factors with Ferrari following swimsuit with 154 factors. Alpine discover themselves in a no man’s land with 47 factors whereas there are tiny gaps between the remainder of the discipline with McLaren sitting on 29, Haas on 11, Alfa Romeo on 9 factors. Williams have additionally collected seven factors courtesy of two point-scoring finishes of Alexander Albon in Bahrain and Canada. AlphaTauri spherical out the standings with two factors each collected by Yuki Tsunoda’s two tenth-place finishes in Australia and Azerbaijan.

Drivers factors – After the dominant begin to his season, Max Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship has grown to 81 factors forward of Perez who sits in second place in the standings on 148 factors. Fernando Alonso occupies P3, 17 factors adrift of the Mexican with Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz following swimsuit.

With his finest results of the season, Charles Leclerc overtook George Russell in the standings with the Monegasque now sitting in P6 on 72 factors. Lando Norris has had an up-and-down season to date, however his fourth place in Spielberg earned him 12 factors, and he now finds himself in P10 in the standings.

Two of the rookie drivers, Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries are nonetheless but to attain factors in 2023.