The 2024 Austrian GP was hard to beat in terms of drama in the finale. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen got themselves out of the way and cleared the way for George Russell’s second Formula 1 victory. But not only on the track, but also in the rankings at Motorsport-Magazin.com The Mercedes driver triumphs in Spielberg.
And once again he needs help. In this case, it wasn’t Norris and Verstappen who opened the door for Russell, but the entire MSM editorial team. Top marks from all editors helped him to an overall rating of 1.40. If it were up to the readers, however, it wouldn’t be Russell at the top of the podium, but someone else.
George Russell prevents Hülkenberg victory
Carlos Sainz (1.91) completed the podium, also beating Oscar Piastri (1.96) based on the editorial team’s rating. Kevin Magnussen (2.23) narrowly missed his best performance of the year from Australia and ended up in fifth place. When it came to evaluating Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly, the editorial team and the MSM audience were largely of the same opinion and placed the two former Red Bull drivers in P6 and P7.
The collision between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, however, caused deep rifts both among the readership and within the editorial team. Norris’s reaction was still limited. The Brit’s assessment after the tough duel with the Formula 1 world champion was mostly mixed to positive and earned him almost the same rating from both readers and MSM editors (overall: 2.34) and thus P8. The gap widened further for Max Verstappen (3.23).
Max Verstappen causes grade chaos: 1, 6 or something in between?
The entire range of the grading scale was used for him. While almost a quarter of readers gave the Red Bull driver a ‘6’ in the Austrian report, over ten percent even gave him the top grade – with a similarly wild distribution in between. Opinions on Verstappen were also very divided in the editorial team. Overall, however, he still managed to finish in tenth place. Incidentally, Alex Albon (3.22) came in ninth among the squabblers on race Sunday.
There was little disagreement with his teammate, however. Sergio Perez (4.56) was penalized both by the editorial team and by the readers for his poor weekend, in which he did not see land against Max Verstappen in any session and ultimately finished the race – partly due to damage – far behind the world championship leader who had an accident and was penalized.
The readers rated Logan Sargeant (4.33) even more critically than Perez, but once again the editors made the difference and at least prevented the Williams driver from ending up in last place again. A rather unusual guest in the lowest positions in the ranking is Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was in 18th place (4.31). The weak weekend, in which he struggled against Lance Stroll, as well as the crash of Zhou Guanyu in turn 3, were too much for the two-time world champion.
Race in Austria: Crash drama compensates for boring half
At the Austrian GP, there was the extremely rare case that the readers rated the race more critically than the editors. While the readers only just managed to stay below a 2, the editors rated the race at 1.67. So everyone agreed that the Grand Prix in Spielberg would be one that will be remembered, despite a boring first half of the race. But the battle and drama at the end outshone the race, which had been lackluster up to that point.
- Readers’ rating race: 1.94
- MSM-Note Race: 1.67
- Overall race score: 1.81
Driver ranking Austria 2024: The MSM grades
| Run | driver | Menath | Niedermaier | Stonecracker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russell | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Piastri | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Sainz | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | Hamilton | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 5 | Verstappen | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | Hulkenberg | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | Perez | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 8th | Magnussen | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Ricciardo | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | Gasly | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Leclerc | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 12 | Ocon | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 13 | Stroll | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | Tsunoda | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 15 | Albon | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 16 | Bottas | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 17 | Zhou | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 | Alonso | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| 19 | Sargeant | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 20 | Norris | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| … | … | … | … | … |
| Run | 2 | 2 | 1 |
F1 driver ranking Austria 2024: Hardships of the editorial team
Christian Menath
Positive hardship case: George Russell
Negative hardship case: Fernando Alonso
A deserved winner? Of course George Russell inherited the victory, but he was there when there was something to be gained. Russell was error-free the entire weekend and consistently faster than his team-mate Hamilton. The old masters are struggling this year. Fernando Alonso’s mood has changed. Anyone who has heard the Spaniard speak recently doubts whether things can go well with Aston Martin for another two and a half years. In Austria, it wasn’t just the car that was weak, but also Alonso. Within the team, he is having more and more problems with Lance Stroll, and the rear-end collision with Zhou Guanyu was clearly his fault.
Markus Steinrisser
Positive hardship case: Kevin Magnussen
Negative hardship case: Zhou Guanyu
I found Kevin Magnussen to be quite pleasant this weekend. On and off the track. After complaining for weeks that his poor results were just bad luck, he actually proved here that he can still do something. Unfortunately, not quite as much as Nico Hülkenberg, and that brings us partly off the track. Magnussen is threatened with a permanent retirement from F1, but he is not clinging so desperately to the World Championship and is not above realizing that he can have a great second half of his career somewhere else. Not like some others who seem almost ready to stick themselves in the cockpit (possibly with millions as superglue) just to stay in Formula 1 without being able to achieve anything. So let’s come to the negative hardship of Zhou Guanyu. Very briefly. Having to watch that every weekend is enough.
Florian Niedermair
Positive hardship case: Carlos Sainz
Negative hardship case: Max Verstappen
When two thoroughbred racers meet, this is what happens. Yesterday’s duel was spectacular and exciting, but all in all not necessarily clean. Regardless, clean is not always successful. In this case, however, both hotheads paid the price. Lando Norris was hit harder, although he himself was not responsible for the collision. This – and I agree with the stewards – is entirely the fault of Max Verstappen, who left Norris one centimeter too little space. Small mistake, big impact! That’s why he is my hard case. Norris let the butter be taken from his bread in the sprint and also ran a little too hot in the race. His late braking maneuvers: borderline. Why he had to steer into Verstappen again after the collision is something only he himself knows. As for the positive outlier: Carlos Sainz was inconspicuously the number 1 at Ferrari in Spielberg. Charles Leclerc has to be kept under control even on a bad weekend.
The top 5 in the MSM season ranking 2024 to Austria
While Max Verstappen was able to extend his lead in the Formula 1 World Championship thanks to the Spielberg accident, the title battle between him and Norris in the annual rankings has actually become a little more intense – especially in terms of average marks. However, the difference in the points rankings is still considerable. George Russell, on the other hand, made a big jump with his victory. Before this weekend he was in ninth place, but now he is level on points with Nico Hülkenberg in fifth place.
How the MSM driver ranking works
Long-time MSM readers already know the ranking, the now proven system of previous years will enter its sixth year in 2024. Immediately after the finish of each Grand Prix, we will call you in our Formula 1 live ticker for the race and here in the article about the ratings of all 20 drivers. You can rate as much as you like until next midday (or longer for evening overseas races).
The average of your marks is used to give each driver a reader’s mark. In parallel with you, we, the MSM F1 crew around Christian Menath, Florian Niedermair and Markus Steinrisser, also rate the performance of all drivers on the weekend in question. We also calculate an average from our judgements – the MSM mark. The overall mark is created in the last step by averaging the user and MSM marks in equal parts. In the event of a tie in the final ranking, the best individual mark decides.
As a little extra, each editor provides his personal hardships of the weekend by choosing and explaining which driver particularly caught his attention. Once in a positive and once in a negative sense. Online, the overall result is always 18:00 the day after the race.