by VALERIO BARRETTA
F1 Austria, the report cards of those promoted
1. Habemus Worldm. We have a World Championship or we could have one. Which doesn’t mean we have a title fight, because recovering 81 points in 13 weekends from Schumaxer is like climbing Mont Ventoux with a flat tire (even if Norris won every race – including the Sprints – Max would only need to finish second to fight for the title in Abu Dhabi with just six points of disadvantage: I mean, what are we talking about?). But we can still have a World Championship: it means hard-fought races, duels on the track, dialectical teasing, in short all those beautiful things that we have only glimpsed – and only in 2022 – with the new era of cars. In short, you can have fun: for how long…it will depend on Norris and McLaren. Red Bull doesn’t seem to be going any higher than this, McLaren is as hungry as someone who has skipped a few too many meals lately. But Norris, is he hungry? Open door in turn-4 in the Sprint and persistence in the race in turn-3 when he then has the opportunity to pass also at Schlossgold. Here too It seems that he is the one with three World Championships and Verstappen the one with one career victory. If he hopes that Max, in the name of some brotherly relationship, will soften in the fight, he’s in trouble. He doesn’t want to lose even at Christmas Monopoly.
2. Oscar Piastri. From the Montmeló disaster to these two beautiful races in Austria. Typical ups and downs of youthone day even more consistency will arrive and then it could be painful for many. He is the one who benefits most from the mistakes and misfortunes of his teammate, however he takes home the overtakings and closes two on the outside on Perez and Sainz who have been in F1 for a decade or more.
3. Haas. Best team of the GP without a shadow of a doubt. They hit the perfect strategy, stopping early and making the hards work (Ricciardo does the same thing, who in fact scores points). Hülkenberg and Magnussen start very well and for a certain period have Verstappen’s pace. One of them even manages to trick Perez: it’s not clear where the skill ends and the abuse beginsbut in the meantime let’s record. A special mention obviously for Russell and Sainz, rewarded for their wait and solidity with a big gift that their teammates should have unwrapped, for quality and palmares. And instead…
F1 Austria, the report cards of the failed
3. Fernando Alonso. Having said that Norris should be rejected, who looks like Darko Pancev at San Siro, there are those who do worse. Like Alonso, who sends Zhou to Tarvisio in another anonymous weekend, in which he finishes two times out of two behind Stroll, if I had said Lauda. From now until 2026 it’s still a long way off, eh?if this is the way.
2. Sergio Perez. With four wheels, Checo he goes slower than Verstappen on three. A driver that Red Bull used for its own purposes just like Ferrari did with the Irvines and the Barrichellos and Mercedes did with Bottas. He has been in the shopping cart for a long time now, but honestly I would challenge anyone to be with Max without consuming the Yellow Pages under “psychologists”.
1. Charles Leclerc. There are those who seek luck and those who seek bad luck. In the race Leclerc sought bad luck. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t have it or that he deserved it, but with a dirty qualifying you risk putting yourself in the funnel. On a circuit that, by the way, is not exactly Monte-Carlo: if you have the car you can get through. It’s an “all or nothing” attitude that Leclerc has always had, and which pays little when you look for something from the car that the car cannot give you. It is no coincidence that Sainz was ahead of him in 2021 and for practically all of 2023, and even now, with one race less, he has closed to just 15 points, halving the gap from Canada onwards. Does it have to grow? Yes but, well, in October he’ll be 27 years old, he’s no longer a beginner. This is more or less the driver, just as Max doesn’t change his nature, neither does Leclerc. But Charles will have a seven-time world champion at home next year. Changing and learning will be a necessity.
#report #cards #Austria #podium
