Verstappen and Norris Clash in Austria
Rivalry Hots Up at the Red Bull Ring
For a long time it seemed that the Austrian Grand Prix had settled into a ‘normal’ mode, with Verstappen out front clearly winning, and Norris in a firm runner-up spot, then Russell some way behind. However, a combination of a slow Red Bull pit stop and the Briton’s McLaren suddenly roaring to life meant the two top drivers fought doggedly for lap after lap, until contact was made.
Verstappen and Norris Collide
Norris was clearly faster. Even had the Red Bull pit stop been as quick as usual I think the Briton would’ve caught the Dutchman pretty quickly. As one might expect, Verstappen put up a stern resistance. But did it cross the line? I would say it did, just about.
There was no insane t-boning or brake testing or anything like that, but Verstappen (on the occasion of the collision) clearly drifted left and there was no room remaining for Norris where there had been some.
The philosophy of “try to pass me and we crash” led to F1 introducing rules banning moving in the braking zone. Verstappen did that, repeatedly. He got a 10s time penalty for causing a collision, I don’t believe he got any penalty for moving in the braking zone, however.
The contact itself looked pretty innocuous but both men ended up with punctures, sending Verstappen plunging down the order and Norris into an early retirement. The latter might have been Norris’ own fault as he set off for the pits way faster than his Dutch rival and may have flayed his car with the shredding tyre.
Meanwhile, George Russell had a lovely day and graduated from 3rd to 1st in the blink of an eye. Piastri pulled off a nice move on Sainz to secure 2nd, and the Ferrari ended up 3rd, which isn’t too bad given he really didn’t look like finishing on the podium for most of the race.
I’m mildly surprised this is the first controversial contact we’ve seen between Verstappen and Norris, but I don’t think it will be the last. The sad thing is that the gap between them is now 81 points and even with Norris and McLaren looking highly competitive that’s almost certainly too much to overhaul. Still, stranger things have happened.
Lovely Day for Haas
The headlines naturally focus on the collision which altered the top end of the points, but it was also a great day for Haas. I expected Hulkenberg to drift back from his strong qualifying to just outside the points, yet both he and Magnussen scored (and would have even without the Norris retirement).
Hulkenberg did incredibly well to finish ahead of Perez by less than a second, securing 6th and an invaluable 8 points. Magnussen was some way down the road in 8th but also fended off a challenge from Ricciardo, who was within a second of the Dane.
The combined 12-point haul is a huge number for Haas, enabling them to pull ahead of Alpine and narrow the gap to RB/VCARB. Right now, RB are on 30, Haas 19, and Alpine 9 (they picked up 1 point with Gasly in Austria).
The best news for Haas is that this was on pace, the results were merited by genuine speed rather than being gifted by DNFs and such. It is true that Leclerc (see below) had some more bad luck, as did Norris, but Haas still would’ve had a double points finish with those two ahead of them instead of behind, and outpaced their nearest competitors (Alpine and RB/VCARB) handily.
It might just be that Austria suited their car nicely, but if they can keep this level of performance up then RB need to watch their back.
Leclerc’s Unlucky Streak Continues
Ever since Monaco, Leclerc has had horrendous luck. He had been the closest challenger to Verstappen before Norris turned up the heat, but in the last three races he’s had a DNF, 5th, and 11th. In all previous races he had finished in the top 4, including a single win (Monaco) and a total of five podium results.
Sainz has had slightly better recent results of DNF, 6th, and 3rd, indicating that Leclerc’s loss of form is partly down to a general decline in Ferrari’s pace compared to rivals. However, he has had rotten luck. In Canada this was a reliability failure (whereas Sainz’s DNF was due to driver error) and in Austria Leclerc got squeezed early on, had nowhere to go, had to have an early pit stop and that was pretty much that.
Come September we have Azerbaijan and Singapore, where Ferrari may do rather better, especially at the latter weekend. Hopefully the bad luck Leclerc’s having will have abated by then.
Track Limits — Too Much Faffing?
Track limit enforcement is a good thing. The white lines were pretty much seen as optional by drivers a few years ago, and the rare occasions when penalties were handed out felt unfair because it was inconsistent with the general lack of consequences for exceeding track limits.
However, Austria has highlighted two potential ways that the way things are handled might be excessive. Piastri is far from the first man to have a qualifying time eliminated for exceeding track limits but he might be the first to lose a win from it. The Aussie was barely over the line. But it was a qualifying lap, and I think that it’s legitimate to delete a time in such a case. Others may disagree.
There’s a more serious problem within the race, though. Norris went beyond the white lines too many times and got a black and white flag (meaning any more track limit violations and he’d start collecting time penalties). But that’s the only factor considered, it seems.
If another driver pushes him wide in such a circumstance, he still gets a penalty. If he makes an obvious error, locks up, goes wide, loses 5s of time, it still counts, and he still gets a penalty.
For situations like that there needs to be more nuance. In qualifying, a driver is on his own, trying to optimise his time. In a race, he may face debris, wheel-to-wheel racing, or make a genuine error.
Richard
