Welcome to the Austrian Grand Prix – 27062024
‘I will be driving for Red Bull’ say Verstappen
Max Verstappen has given his firmest indication yet that he will be continuing with Red Bull beyond the end of 2024. Despite having a contract until 2028 the fallout from allegations which have been dismissed against CEO and team principal Christian Horner followed by vague answers earlier in the season called into question his future with the team.
Verstappen has a contract to race until the end of the 2028 campaign. That situation arose amid Red Bull’s early 2024 civil war, which followed the investigation into Horner’s behaviour towards a female employee, and how Verstappen strongly backed Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
Although over the last few months, chances of leaving the team have faded after key ally Marko resolved his immediate future with Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff, there has since been much interest in Mercedes’ subsequent efforts to entice him away from Red Bull.
Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff even went as far as to say “it’s a kind of a relationship that needs to happen at a certain stage” at the subsequent Australian event, with the situation again being discussed in media sessions involving Wolff and Horner at last weekend’s Spanish GP. Wolff said there were “no talks that are taking place at this stage – because I think we need to look on ourselves and on improving the car”.
However, Mercedes group CEO Ola Kallenius told Sky Germany that there was “an opportunity” to sign Verstappen amid F1’s 2026 engine rule changes and that he thought the Dutchman “would look good in silver”.
Asked in the press conference, if considering the headlines arising from such comments, would he be prepared to end the situation by saying he would 100% be racing for Red Bull in 2025? Verstappen replied, “I think I’ve said this before. I mean naturally of course people are talking, but it’s most important just that we have a very competitive car for the future.”
“At the moment of course it’s very tight, but we are working very well as a team to try and improve more. And for sure, I said this already with the team, we’re working and focusing on next year to try and be competitive again.”
Verstappen was then asked if he could yet decide to abandon Red Bull if it became clear to him the team would not have F1’s best car in 2025, following McLaren’s strong showings in recent races.
Replying “I don’t think that’s how Formula 1 works – where then suddenly you can say, ‘well, bye guys’. It’s not how it works. I have a long contract with the team, I’m very happy where I’m at and, like I said before, we’re focusing also already on next year with things we can implement on the car. So, I guess that should say enough of where I’m driving next year.”
Although Verstappen’s answer provides the clearest response yet on how he currently sees his future at Red Bull, it does not stop him from trying to force an exit before his contract ends in 2028 if he so desires in the future.
Verstappen v Norris a genuine threat?
Lando Norris has “emerged from the pack” as the most “consistent challenger” to Max Verstappen with Red Bull expecting the McLaren driver to remain a big threat to them at their home Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.
In the last five of the six Grands Prix, Verstappen and Norris have finished as the top two with Verstappen beating Norris five times and Norris taking a maiden win in Miami. But at the last two races, there appeared to be only a few seconds between the two last weekend in Barcelona, which suggests Norris could still yet prove a genuine title threat to Verstappen over the fourteen weekends that remain in the record-length 2024 season.
Last weekend’s second place moved Norris into second in the driver’s championship, sixty-nine points, or less than three Grands Prix wins behind Verstappen.
And reflecting on his driver’s narrow two-second victory over Norris at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: “If Lando would have had track position it would have been difficult to beat them. It was so close between the two of them and they were eighteen seconds ahead of the rest. I would say that Lando has emerged from the pack as the most consistent challenger.”
As well as that win, he has finished as runner-up to Verstappen nine times since this race a year ago when McLaren introduced the transformation upgrade.
A lap of the Red Bull Ring takes little over 60 seconds to complete and Horner said ahead of this weekend’s Sprint event: “On such a short lap, it’s going to be so tight and we expect McLaren and Lando to be fast again. Ferrari and Mercedes? Who knows. If you look at the gap to those guys after the race it was pretty similar to last year. The one who has stepped up is Lando.”
Verstappen’s championship lead has grown by thirteen points in the last two races, but they haven’t been the dominant victories we have been used to since 2022. the Dutchman now enjoying a season-high lead, that could yet change quickly if the McLaren driver is able to convert his car’s ever-growing pace into a run of wins given how many points remain up for grabs this season, a maximum of three hundred and ninety-six points on the table.
This weekend a maximum of thirty-five points are on the table, if a driver wins both the sprint and Grand Prix with the fastest lap.
Asked about his title chances after Spain, Norris said: “We should have got some points back on Max. Potentially, there was a chance to beat him in Canada. So two races that I finished second and he’s won. But Max needs to stop winning in order to achieve that. Yeah, even though I moved into second in the championship, that doesn’t matter. I couldn’t care if I was second or tenth.”
Gasly signs a multi-year contract
Pierre Gasly has signed a new multi-year contract extension with Alpine. The Frenchman’s signing for another season ensures that Alpine retains continuity into 2025, as it announced previously that it was parting ways with Esteban Ocon at the end of the current season.
Gasly is currently in his second season with the team after finishing eleventh last season, four points ahead of Ocon as the two were closely matched. Alpine has endured a difficult start to 2024 after entering the year with a car that was said to be overweight, although steady improvements and efforts to reduce weight have led to an uptick in the team’s performances.
This has led to a pair of double-points finishes in the last two races – Gasly has finished ninth in both, with Ocon tenth at Montreal and Spain. Gasly currently leads his fellow Normandy-born stable-mate by five points to three in the standings. He said, “I feel very much at home at this great team. I enjoy being a real part of both the Formula 1 project and the wider Alpine Cars vision.”
“I’ve been officially here for over eighteen months and it has always been the plan to build a long-term project with the team. While on track it’s been a challenging season so far, I remain faithful to the project and I am not going anywhere. I am happy with the changes made, the hard work, and the direction the team is taking. There is a lot of potential in this team’s personnel and resources.”
I think it was always likely that Gasly would stay and the team would retain one driver despite what prompted Ocon’s departure, the clash in Monaco sealed his fat This earned the ire of team principal Bruno Famin, and Ocon’s impending departure from the team was announced in the wake of their clash ahead of the Montreal round.
Famin said, “The extension of Pierre’s contract with the team is very pleasing. He is a driver with huge experience in Formula One and continues to show huge amounts of potential on track. For Alpine as a brand, he is a great ambassador and we therefore look forward to continuing our collaboration.”
“While this is important for our future, we do have to keep our eyes close to what is coming and that is focusing on improving our current package. We have high ambitions this current season and we will work tirelessly to achieve those things.”
Stroll signs new Aston Martin deal
Lance Stroll will remain with Aston Martin “for 2025 and beyond”, in what the team which is owned by his father Lawrence, is describing as a contract extension. Stroll has raced at Aston since 2019 his father Lawrence’s consortium purchased the assets of what was the then Force India the following year.
The Canadian has taken part in a hundred and twelve races, scoring two podiums both in 2020. Stroll who previously raced in F1 for Williams after graduating as European Formula 3 champion in 2017, but in effect, he competes on a rolling contract given his family’s ownership of the team.
The end date of his previous contract was unknown as it has not been formally disclosed how long Stroll was tied to race for Aston, beyond the arrangement being called a “long-term deal” when it was announced in late 2018.
While it looked to be a formality there were questions about his poor results and inconsistency compared to his teammate Fernando Alonso has raised questions about his future, making this announcement Aston ends such speculation.
Stroll said “I’m super happy to have committed to staying with the team for 2025 and beyond. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in the last five years; we’ve grown so much as a team and there’s still so much more to look forward to.”
Aston team principal Mike Krack added: “We are delighted to confirm Lance’s future with Aston Martin. He has played a key role in building this team. His technical feedback, alongside his committed simulator work, has helped contribute to the continuous development of the car each season.”
“The consistency and stability of both Lance and Fernando [Alonso] remaining with our team is a great platform to continue to realise our ambitions. We look forward to creating some more incredible memories and achieving further success together.”
No ultimatum for Ricciardo to keep seat
Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull had given him no ultimatum as pressure mounts on the Australian to save his RB seat. The Australian replaced Nyck de Vries at RB this time last year but was only given a one-year contract, while it was his aim was to return to Red Bull Sergio Perez was given a contract extension earlier in the month.
Ricciardo’s future with the sister team, looks under threat with Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko this week indicating it was time to bring in a young driver Liam Lawson is the reserve and waiting for another opportunity after impressing as a stand-in. Ricciardo told reporters on Thursday that he only found out about Marko’s comments when he arrived at the Red Bull Ring.
He told reporters “I don’t feel one way or another about it. I still know the overriding thing in this sport is performance. That’s what will give me my best chance of staying here. I know that. It’s not going to be my smile or anything else, it’s the on-track stuff.”
“There hasn’t been any pressure, ultimatum, nothing like that. But also I’ve been in the sport a long time. I know that if I’m getting my ass kicked every weekend at some point someone will be like ‘hey mate, step it up, otherwise…’. But I haven’t had that.”
Ricciardo’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda has already been confirmed for 2025, with chief executive Peter Bayer said in May that the team were happy with both and the focus was on races until the summer break. Four races are remaining, including Austria, before the August summer break.
Ricciardo is an eight-time Grand Prix winner, seven of them with Red Bull from 2014-18, but he has been outscored by Tsunoda over the ten races so far this season.
Ferrari looking to rejoin the fight at front
Ferrari are hoping to be back in the fight at the front this weekend after slipping to fourth last weekend in Barcelona. Carlos Sainz is expecting the team to be competitive after the team saw a key weakness, Sainz and teammate Charles Leclerc qualified on the third row in Barcelona, behind both Mercedes cars, Lando Norris (McLaren) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull).
The lack of pace continued in the race, with both cars trying a split strategy to go after Mercedes but they were unable to progress from where they qualified. Sainz admitted Ferrari was fourth-fastest in his home race, but said Barcelona’s layout punished Ferrari’s long corner weakness more than other circuits will do, expecting to be more competitive this weekend at the Red Bull Ring.
Sainz said, “It was not our best weekend, but this was the track where we struggled the most last year too. So that’s our hope, that it’s just a [bad] track for us and that there will be other tracks where we will be a bit more competitive.”
“It’s the high-speed nature of the track and the long, combined [corners], we seem to be always struggling when it’s long corners like China, here or Suzuka. I remember Austria not being an issue for track characteristics, so I think we will be more competitive because of the corner types.”
Team principal Fred Vasseur felt that Barcelona’s pecking order didn’t necessarily set a trend for the remaining races before the summer break, with the tight margins between the top four teams causing bigger fluctuations than in previous years. He suggested that this was because the team car hasn’t changed massively, which puts it more down to track layout.
Adding “Before drawing conclusions, we have to stay calm, we have to go event by event and [in Austria] it will be a completely different format, different tarmac, different type of corners also and probably the picture will be completely different next week. Nothing is forever in F1 today and it means it is not crystal clear that one team is better than the other.”
Vasseur said Ferrari particularly fell short in Barcelona qualifying, with the team needing to dig deeper into how to keep the SF-24 in the right tyre window throughout a single lap. Je explained, “The most important thing in Barcelona is to keep the potential of the tyres all over the lap in different corners.”
“Probably we missed something on this because we were two-tenths off. But with fourteen corners in Barcelona, we are not losing one-hundredth per corner. We lost two times one-tenth per lap and the rest of the lap was a copy-paste of Lando.”
Leclerc relishing “huge opportunity” from Hamilton
Charles Leclerc has told Sky Sports he is relishing the “huge opportunity” of being team-mate to Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in the 2025 season. Next week marks six months since Hamilton announced one of the biggest move in the sport’s history, and with six months to go it’s still having implications on the driver market and the sport in general
Leclerc and Hamilton’s friendship over his six years in the sport, he is “really looking forward” to pitting himself against the seven-time world champion. In an interview to be broadcast this weekend, he said, “Lewis is the most successful driver in F1 history and for me to be able to drive the same car as Lewis is, first, a huge opportunity to learn from the best ever, as well as a huge motivation to show what I’m capable of.”
“So, I’m really excited about this new challenge. We have a great relationship as well. I have so much respect for Lewis and everything he has achieved and it’s definitely going to be a big moment of my career to be against Lewis, obviously working together to bring Ferrari back on top.”
Leclerc and Hamilton are considered to be two of the best drivers over one lap in the sports history. The Monacan admitted that he believed that Hamilton had very few weaknesses but he could definitely learn from the seven-time champion.
Asked what they have been discussing, Leclerc replied: “It’s mixed. Maybe a little bit about just the way it is now with Ferrari and where we are at, but this is a very little part of our discussions because obviously he’s still hundred per cent focused on his season this year in Mercedes, so we cannot exchange about everything yet, of course.
Ferrari is currently second in the constructors, two places ahead of Hamilton’s current team Mercedes, and has won two races so far this season. Ferrari have otherwise been supplanted by McLaren as Red Bull’s nearest challengers, while they have also been outperformed by an improving Mercedes at the last two events too.
Asked last weekend if he was regretting his move to Ferrari, he said “No, not at all. I mean, firstly, I love Mercedes. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13 and I’ll always be a fan and supporter of Mercedes. And my job this year, right now, is to work as hard as I can with the crew that I have, with the people back at the factory to try and move and develop the car in the right direction.”
McLaren using a rented motorhome
McLaren is using a rented motorhome for the Austrian Grand Prix as work continues on a deep clean of its fire-damaged Team Hub. Last Saturday, an electrical issue prompted a fire between practice and qualifying which had to be attended to by emergency crews.
Although everyone was safely evacuated from the motorhome without injury as the fire was put out, although one team member required precautionary hospital checks for smoke inhalation, the motorhome was put out of action for the remainder of the race weekend.
While efforts were made to clean the motorhome in the Barcelona paddock prior to it being dismantled, it has since been shipped back to Germany for further servicing and a deep clean. However there is hope the team can still get it back for their home race next weekend at Silverstone, but if not either Budapest or Spa.
In the meantime, McLaren is using a rented motorhome from the German Schuler company, which provides its engineering base, known as the Performance Centre, on race weekends. The team are expecting fewer visitors this weekend and the temporary home should see them through the weekend with minimal disruption.
The Weekend Ahead
This weekend I think we can expect another close battle it has already been close this season but last weekend I think proved how close it is as we were watching to see if Red Bull would sail off, while they did win it wasn’t a crushing victory. Spielberg is at the opposite end of the spectrum while it is another high-speed downforce circuit where being the highest in terms of altitude it can act as a leveller.
Max Verstappen will be the favourite as he is the most successful driver at this circuit I think this could answer so many questions. Red Bull this is their home race, they want to go well here and though it has closed up they are one off the favourites this weekend and I don’t expect that to change over the coming races.
Lando Norris has become his closest challenger since Miami and this is a circuit he also looks comfortable on as he took his first podium, abite thanks to penalties, here back in 2020. Norris just missed out last weekend and it will be interesting how he bounces back from that as he continues to grow as a driver.
Mercedes and Ferrari aren’t far off McLaren, this could put them in the mix as well I think Ferrari had a very tough weekend in Barcelona the big question is have Mercedes taken a divisive move in that fight to go after McLaren? That might be answered this weekend, but it is a very short circuit sometimes qualifying sessions both because of mistakes on laps and the chances of both yellow and red flags.
Driver market could start moving now we are entering July and have had a few pieces move in recent weeks, Carlos Sainz still being the thing holding some drivers up. But more likely we will get announcements at Zandvoort or Monza after the summer the gossip could guide us to the answers over the coming weeks.