What to expect from F1 in Austria

The Red Bull Ring will measure the improvement of Norris, Ferrari and Mercedes in the garden of Verstappen, who has won four of the last six GPs there.

The Red Bull Ring circuit pone tries to improve the car of the British Lando Norris (McLaren), the Ferraris and the Mercedes in the garden of the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull)which arrived at one of his favorite tracks, where he has accumulated four wins and where he wants to show again his appetite to give, once again, another blow of authority in the Formula 1 World Championship.

The McLarens seem to be stronger, with Mercedes coming and Ferrari still in the fight, but weekend after weekend, Verstappen kept smiling and the Austrian anthem followed by the Netherlands anthem at the podium ceremony.

In this case, The Red Bull Ring will have an addition: a sprint race which gives Norris, the British Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) the opportunity to get a little closer to the Dutchman, who, by now, has accumulated 69 points advantage in second.

In more suffering than the beginning of time, The three-time world champion continues to collect victories wherever he goes and the distance with respect to the second type does not stop growing. Despite not winning in the silence he did last year, he won five of the first eight races of the championship and Ferrari’s drop in the last two races caused the gap in the drivers’ World Championship to continue to increase.

Although, it is true, It was no longer a successful walk. However, Verstappen showed at the Spanish Grand Prix just five days ago that he is still the king of a World Cup he controls and where he has a 69-point advantage over the second-placed team.

In fact, The only difference from other races is that second place is no longer for Leclercwho is now two points away from that second place, and already from a Lando Norris who enjoyed a podium finish and is Verstappen’s great rival, with him being courted to even steal something from his ‘pole position’, as happened in Montmeló.

however, Leclerc returns to a circuit where he won two years ago, snatched the scepter from Verstappen at his home and the Red Bulls. The Monegasque, as well as Ferrari, will have to work hard if they want to reclaim second place in the championship.

A change of chip for Sainz, Alonso and Checo Pérez

But it was more complicated for the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who with his sixth place took his fourth world championship, surpassing the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull), although in his 116 points he is still far from Norris’ 150 and his teammate’s 148.

Sainz, who won in Australia two weeks after undergoing appendicitis surgery, needed a chip change in the chain podiums again, as happened after Melbourne. His last two races broke the good momentum, which led him to finish in the ‘top 5’ in the first seven races he competed in 2024.

The same change required the Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) where the car has not responded in recent weekends. Ninth in the World Championship with just 41 points, he is far from the performance shown in 2023 and to a large extent it is the fault of a car that has prevented him from scoring points in three of the last four races of this season, in that he has yet to add a podium after tasting eight last year.

Something similar is happening with the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red bull). Despite the renewal, ‘Checo’ is still far – very far – from Verstappen, who is his teammate and has barely added 111 points, almost half of the 219 of the insatiable ‘Mad Max’.

In fact, his best position in the last four grands prix has been two eighth positions, despite starting the audio with three second places in the first four circuits of the season.

The Red Bull Ring will measure the progress of McLaren and Ferrari to fight a tireless Max Verstappen, but also the improvement of Aston MartinFerrari with Sainz and Pérez, who must be more aggressive if they want to continue adding points and get closer to the top of the table in the second half of this season.

Fountain: EFE.