The most recent Formula 1 races have been tough for Lando Norris. He seems to be paying dearly for the happiness of his first victory in 2024. In Austria, he suffered another frustrating defeat in the sprint. However, making up for this today in the race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg in the next big battle against Max Verstappen will probably prove difficult. The favorite check.
Because today Verstappen is finally getting ready to reset the situation in front of thousands of fans from the Netherlands who have travelled to the Austrian GP. Yesterday’s qualifying was tough for the opposition, again led by Norris: this time the McLaren was 0.404 seconds behind. On Friday in the sprint qualifying it was still a thriller of hundredths.
“The pace advantage that Max had today will probably be carried over into the race,” fears Norris. Looking at it objectively, he doubts McLaren are convinced that they were really as fast as Verstappen in the sprint. Just because Norris was close enough to mount an attack in the starting phase doesn’t mean anything.
Norris affected by next mistake in Austrian sprint
But first, Norris’ biggest focus was on his half-hearted defensive play in that sprint battle with Verstappen. He had already taken the lead, but then missed the chance to cover the inside completely, allowing the counterattack. On top of that, he was pushed into third place by Oscar Piastri.
Norris was harsh on himself and urgently needs revenge. Too often in the last few weeks, things have gone wrong for him and McLaren: “We say that every weekend now. I can’t do that anymore. I just have to do a better job. I did something pretty stupid, it wasn’t very smart of me.”
However, Spielberg is a difficult place for Norris to achieve this revenge. He has been suffering from poor health all weekend, although he swears that it will not affect his performance. And Formula 1 is in the middle of a triple-header. These are not good conditions for a reset. There are also question marks over McLaren’s pace.
Piastri clearly pulled away from Verstappen in the sprint, who celebrated a fairly comfortable victory. However, there was a caveat: while Piastri had problems, Norris was the faster McLaren in the final phase, but just couldn’t get past. “It’s a close fight,” was Verstappen’s conclusion afterwards. Although the three of them went at a hellish pace at the beginning without considering their medium tires and Norris drove the entire race in turbulent air, he still had good pace at the end.
Verstappen steps up: Now too much for Norris & McLaren?
This underlines that McLaren’s strong race pace from the last few weekends is still there. What Red Bull is much happier about is the successful setup process. After several mixed weekends, Verstappen is celebrating in Spielberg that the RB20 started here as a good basis. And thanks to the changes to the sprint format, Red Bull was able to improve again during the Saturday lunch break.
The consequence was a gigantic lead of over four tenths on the sub-65 second lap. “Yesterday I may have driven a better lap and gained some time, and today I could have gained at least one or two tenths with just a good lap, but definitely not enough for me to beat Max,” said Norris.
For Pirelli, the fastest strategy is clearly a two-stop combination with one medium and two hard tires. It is important to note here: At the front, Red Bull decided to save two hard tires for Sunday. McLaren, and the rest of the leading group, decided to keep more medium tires.
Have Verstappen & Norris gotten too far ahead of the rest of the F!?
Ultimately, Verstappen and Norris from the front row are the clear favorites for the race. The competition from Ferrari and Mercedes are expecting to only fight among themselves. Both teams were very close in the sprint. Both are counting on improved race pace after setup changes.
In this four-way battle, Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez are the wildcards in the fourth row – the last of the leading group. Perez had a disappointing Saturday with a big deficit to Verstappen. Piastri, on the other hand, only failed in his tire management. Fighting through both Ferraris and both Mercedes will be difficult.