formula one car on a race track

Amrit Virdi

The past weekend saw Formula 1 return to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where Red Bull continued their dominance of the 2023 season in a penalty fuelled race.

Before diving into the weekend’s racing, I would like to send my condolences to the friends and family of Dilano van ‘t Hoff, a talented 18-year-old Formula Regional driver gone too soon after a crash at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on Saturday. This is another indication that changes need to be made imminently for the safety of drivers in motorsport.

Practice, Qualifying and Sprint

Austria took on another unconventional and slightly confusing format, with Practice 1 and Qualifying for Sunday’s race taking place on Friday. Saturday then consisted of a Sprint Race in the afternoon after a Sprint Shootout in the morning which set the starting grid for the Sprint.

FP1 (Free Practice 1) was rather uneventful as it was another Max Verstappen-dominated hour. Nevertheless, Ferrari occupied the second and third places as they attempted to up their performance after a tricky start to the season. Mercedes ran fifth and ninth.

“The biggest surprise was Lando Norris running last…”

The biggest surprise was Lando Norris running last after failing to get a time in on softs despite having heavy upgrades to the McLaren this weekend. However, this did not last for long as his luck got better as the weekend went on. Verstappen beat Leclerc to pole in Qualifying by 0.048 seconds but faced a post-race investigation for impeding Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, which he was eventually cleared of. His teammate Sergio Perez surprised fans by being knocked out in Q2 and therefore set to start the Sunday race from P15.

Adverse Conditions

The wet conditions on Saturday led to a dramatic day. Seven-time-world champion Lewis Hamilton had a dramatic exit in SQ1 as he finished 18th. His teammate George Russell was not far behind in 15th after a hydraulic issue. However, McLarens Lando Norris made the most of his upgrades and came third overall. A potential unsafe release from Hulkenberg and Piastri reporting traffic in the form of Leclerc at the apex of turn nine added drama to the shootout before the afternoon’s Sprint.

“This alone would have made for an interesting race”

With McLaren in contention for a place in the top 3 in the Sprint, something which did not seem possible earlier on in the season, this alone would have made for an interesting race. However, with the rain adding intense spray at the start of the race, it seemed that many drivers were struggling for grip which made for some close racing, and strategy teams had tough decisions to make about tyres. Perez overtook Verstappen at the start which led to a heated entanglement on track between the two with accusations through the radio of them ”pushing each other off the track’.’ Midfield squabbles shifted the order and caused Norris to drop from fourth to ninth, whilst Hamilton put in an impressive performance and finished tenth.

The Race

The rain cleared up in time for Sunday’s race, with some alterations to the grid as Nyck de Vries and Kevin Magnussen started from the pitlane due to car changes. Verstappen stormed ahead as lap one saw the Ferraris battle and Hamilton overtake Norris, and an early safety car in the first few laps to pick up debris from close midfield racing.

”Lewis, the car is bad, we know, please keep driving”

Sergio Perez made up three places by lap seven, and got into a heated battle with Carlos Sainz for fourth place which caused the Ferrari driver to prompt the FIA to investigate the Red Bull driver for being “intimidating” Hamilton and Perez also fought it out at one point but the Red Bull just has better race pace. Hamilton’s car issues did not help his case and resulted in a Mercedes seventh and eighth finish. Mercedes Team Principle Toto Wolff even intervened on the radio delivering a message to Lewis saying ”Lewis, the car is bad, we know, please keep driving,” which hopefully will not happen next race as the team is due more upgrades at Silverstone.

Standings at the End of the Fierce Competition

Nonetheless, Perez finished third. His teammate, Verstappen, cruised ahead at the front, 23 seconds ahead by the last few laps and chancing a pitstop to get the point for the fastest lap, which he succeeded in. Another Red Bull dominance is particularly impressive given that Perez missed Thursday’s media day due to battling illness all weekend. They have a different strategy from other teams, known as being able to afford to not pit under safety cars when all the other teams did.

Meanwhile Verstappen lost his lap-leading streak and had to briefly battle Leclerc to regain the top spot after a mid-race pitstop. He did this with ease because the team are truly in their own league this season. It is the midfield which brings the intense racing this season. Bottas and Gasly are just an example of two of the many drivers fighting it out this weekend.

Promising Rest of the Season for Ferrari

Leclerc took the second spot which signals a promising rest of the season for Ferrari. However, it was Norris who won Driver of the Day as he made the most of his car’s upgrades and finished fifth. His teammate, Piastri, with no upgrades to his car as of yet, finished seventeenth, so these eventual upgrades have clearly been worth the wait for the team.

Penalties

What defined this race was the sheer amount of penalties. The entire race was underpinned by drivers calling each other out for going off-track limits. Tsunoda himself received three five-second time penalties. De Vries got a five-second penalty for pushing Magnussen off track, with Hamilton, Sainz, and Sargeant getting track-limit time penalties. Perez also got a black and white flag – one off a track-limit time penalty. Four hours after the race finished, the final results shifted after confirmation that Sainz, Hamilton, Gasly, Ocon, Albon, Sargreant, de Vries, and Tsunoda all had time penalties.

A Red Bull dominance is predictable for the rest of the season, but the midfield battles and rising of McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari is something which will hopefully follow into Silverstone from this weekend.

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Amrit is an English and History graduate and is currently studying for her MA in Magazine Journalism, writing about everything from music to motorsport and fashion whilst being a Music Co-Editor for LeftLion and working part-time in Marketing.

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