A race that probably could have used some rain.
Max Verstappen strengthened his grip on the championship with a dominant win in Red Bull‘s back yard at the Styrian Grand Prix.
It was a weekend where the Red Bulls ruled, topping every session except Practice 3, and once Verstappen had successfully navigated the start and the first couple of corners, it looked unlikely that he would be challenged.
In truth, a challenge looked unlikely as soon as the forecast rain failed to appear.
Mercedes may have been able to compete in terms of race pace seven days earlier, but that was at Paul Ricard. The French track has been a strong track for the Silver Arrows since it returned to the calendar; the Red Bull Ring generally has not.
In the early stages of the race, Lewis Hamilton managed to keep his title rival close enough to see the now sturdier Red Bull rear wing a few seconds up the road. But as they approached the pit stop window, Verstappen began to turn the screw. And once into the second stage of the race, any hopes of Mercedes utilising a tyre wear advantage to make a race of it also dissipated as Verstappen extended his advantage without drama.
Unlike in France, there was nothing Hamilton and his team could have done differently on strategy this time – Verstappen simply had them covered on outright pace.
The Dutchman eventually reached the flag over 30 seconds ahead of Hamilton, once the Britain had stopped for a set of softs and a consolation bonus point for fastest lap. And it should have been a double podium for the home team.
After all the talk of pit stop regulations – more on that later – it was ironically a botched Red Bull stop which cost Sergio Pérez. Having navigated past the once again excellent Lando Norris, Pérez appeared to have Valtteri Bottas covered in their fight for the final podium spot. But a slow stop dropped him back behind the Finn and a gamble to switch to fresh medium tyres narrowly failed. One more lap would have done it. Pérez broke into the DRS window on the last lap but stood no chance of passing through the final five corners.
Norris ran a lonely but effective race to finish fifth and impressively remain above Bottas in the standings. The Ferraris reversed their form from the last grand prix. In France, they started well but fell badly through the field. Here, a poor qualifying from Carlos Sainz and a clumsy opening lap by Charles Leclerc were rectified by impressive race pace which saw the pair recover to sixth and seventh respectively.
That means Ferrari narrow the gap to McLaren slightly after Daniel Ricciardo failed to score points. The Aussie struggled once again in qualifying and, after he had made amends with an excellent opening lap, a temporary loss of power saw him plummet back down the order. The Honey Badger just can’t catch a break right now.
Lance Stroll came home a solid eighth, Fernando Alonso continued his return to form in ninth and Yuki Tsunoda had a better weekend to take the final point.
It’s back to Spielberg again in a week’s time and Mercedes won’t be enjoying the prospect of another chastening dent to their title defence. Can we hold out any hope for a more interesting race? Perhaps. The tyres are a step softer and the two races in Silverstone last year showed how much of a difference that can make. And who knows – maybe it could even bloody rain when it’s supposed to this time…
A Storm in a Pit Stop
There was a lot of talk in the run-up to the Styrian Grand Prix about a new technical directive regarding pit stops.
“This is an outrage!” screamed large portions of social media. “It’s the FIA trying to help Mercedes against Red Bull!” yelled armchair experts as their tin foil hats slipped over their eyes.
The reality is that this will make very little difference and – more to the point – if it does affect any teams, they were exploiting a loophole and endangering their own pit crews.
The technical directive mandates a minimum 0.15-second delay between the wheel nuts being confirmed as tight and the mechanic operating the jack dropping the car, and 0.2 seconds from the jack going down to the driver receiving the signal to leave the pits.
Christian Horner, of course, piped up – windbag that he is – to claim that, “To have to hold the car for two tenths of a second, you could almost argue it’s dangerous because you’re judging your gaps. The guy that’s releasing the car is having to make that judgement, and I think that it’s not been well thought through.”
That is nonsense. There will be no judging a 0.15-second gap. For the same reason that an Olympic sprinter or an F1 driver starting in less than that is deemed to have jumped the start. That is quite simply the absolute fastest a human being can react.
If you doubt me, please go and attempt to react in under 150ms here: https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime
All this clarification does is ensure that there are no automated systems in play. Systems that would speed up times but reduce safety. It’s very easy for Horner to give his two cents, sat on a comfy chair on the pit wall… But it’s a different matter entirely when a 900kg, 1000 bhp Formula 1 car is millimetres away from doing you significant damage.
Let’s not forget, it was only three years ago that a Ferrari mechanic had his leg broken when an automated system gave Kimi Räikkönen an errant green light.
Loose wheels bouncing down the pit lane are equally dangerous.
And again, if there are no illegal systems at play, Horner should have nothing to worry about. So, let’s just all move on shall we? It will probably all have been forgotten about by the time it comes into play at the Hungarian Grand Prix anyway.
The Styrian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds
Answering the Burning Questions
Can Mercedes turn around their form on Red Bull’s home track? Nope.
Will we see a wet and wild weekend? As is tradition, the likelihood of a wet race went from 90% on Friday, to 40% on Saturday, to 0% on Sunday morning. The best we got was a few drops in Practice 2. Typical.
Can Ferrari solve their race pace/degradation issues? Yes, Sainz produced an impressive first stint to overcut most of the midfield.
