Five Takeaways Austria: Mercedes reign is finally over

Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen won this race as well, albeit in a more dominant fashion, reminiscent of the Sebastian Vettel wins in the 2010-2013 Red Bull era of dominance.

In this race though, the midfield was in “entertainment-compensation” mode, which was seriously needed since Verstappen made the slightest hint of a front running battle impossible.

So let’s venture into our usual five takeaways from the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes surely couldn’t wait for this race to end, regardless of their result. Their stamina has been genuinely tested over the last three weeks.

With Max and Co. serving the reigning champions with a right jab in France, a left one in Austria-1, and a knockout uppercut in Austria-2; the ice bags are definitely in high demand in Brackley and Brixworth. Boy those bruises must hurt!

You would have thought that racing at the same circuit for a second consecutive weekend would have offered some “lessons learned” that could make Mercedes close the gap to Red Bull. On the contrary, they were even worse the second time around. Their qualifying was plain bad with Lando Norris (more on him later) beating them to second place fair and square. On race day, their target wasn’t winning, as much as trying to overcome the orange road block Norris put in their way.

Mercedes have always shown that they learn from tough experiences, always capable of fighting back, but it seems that the challenge they are facing this season by the energy drinks team and their on-form driver is knocking them off balance. Toto Wolff bullishly claimed they will blow everyone away in Silverstone. Let’s see.

You feel at a loss for words when you try to describe Lando Norris’s performance. There was always a hype around him coming into F1 and he definitely didn’t disappoint.

Zac Brown has a gem of a driver in his roster. A gem that is getting polished with every race. This weekend, Norris has reached a new level qualifying second on merit with almost nothing separating him from pole sitter Verstappen. Although Max’s pole time could have been better had he improved on his second run, that doesn’t take any credit away from Lando’s achievement.

His race performance was sublime barring his incident with Sergio Perez. Some might say the penalty he received was not warranted but this discussion will go on forever, and the stewards will always have the final word. Life goes on.

What was impressive though is that he didn’t allow the penalty to distract him from soldiering on and claiming the final podium position only 2 seconds behind Valtteri Bottas which clearly proves that second place was on the cards for the British youngster had it not been for the 5 seconds penalty.

His defense against Lewis Hamilton early during the race was something to behold, and to which the seven time champion had no answer. Lewis’s radio message: “Such a great driver, Lando”, after he finally overtook Norris said it all (although Lewis might have said that to justify his difficulties to pass his compatriot).

Russell delivered a tantalizing qualifying performance getting his undeserving Williams car into Q3. The prospect of points was definitely on the cards for the race but alas, it wasn’t just meant to be as Fernando Alonso deprived him of the 10th place towards the end.

Although he had a scruffy start, Russell drove a solid race considering that he was starting on the soft tyres, and his defence against Alonso was admirable to say the least. After all, that’s an on-form Alonso you’re dealing with, who is renowned for his superior race craft.

Russell has had many disappointing moments since he joined F1, but there should be light at the end of the tunnel for him. He is worthy of a Mercedes seat. With Lewis staying with the team for two more years, many are doubting that the team will partner him with Russell out of fear on team harmony. That shouldn’t be the deciding factor and George should get his break.

This point has somehow been an intriguing aspect for a while now, at least in my humble opinion. And what Fernando Alonso said recently about the qualifying rules benefitting the faster teams has led me to put it out there.

As known, the driver who goes through into Q3 has to start his race on the tyre he used in Q2 in order to get to Q3. Top teams can always reach Q3 on a harder tyre (usually the better race starting tyre). They have all the pace they need so no problem there.

However, the midfield teams usually need to use the softest available tyre to achieve that which in turn jeopardizes their first stint in the race and their overall race strategy. That was evident with Aston Martin’s race this weekend. They won on Saturday and lost out on Sunday when the points were awarded.

We have noticed over the past few races from the data crunch column our colleague Kevin Melro writes, that the race pace between the midfield teams (Alpine, AlphaTauri, and Aston Martin) is so close that on track overtaking is almost impossible. So qualifying position is important; but is it worthwhile to start ahead on the softest tyre compound?

Sebastian Vettel’s result in Baku shows that starting out of the top ten with proper tyre choice was much more rewarding. He was able to run longer on his first stint, and then have fresher tyres and more pace towards the end. He was on to a good result regardless of how the race transpired.

So unless a midfield team can reach Q3 on a proper race tyre, should it be hell bent on reaching Q3 at any price? Wouldn’t it be worth it to take a calculated risk of not reaching Q3 and having free tyre choice, hence running an optimal strategy?

In Austria, only Pierre Gasly made it work starting on softs, despite losing three positions from his starting grid spot. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, proved that it wasn’t a disaster starting from outside the top 10.

Tyre wear trends, race track nature, and long run data collected during practice are surely a decisive factor in such decisions. But if the numbers add up, isn’t it worth it to take such a risk?

Surely, all the Max Verstappen fans around the world won’t like this, but with the Dutchman winning three races in a row, one cannot be blamed to fear that the title race gets boring if Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton don’t strike back.

The closeness of the fight between Max and Lewis up to now is a story to tell your grandchildren in years to come. But recently, the gap has grown between them.

Being only biased towards the show and the sport, we need the gap to close up again and keep things sizzling till the end of the season.

To many, the prospect of Mercedes and Hamilton being usurped is extremely tempting, but if it is to be realized, let it be as late as possible in the season with more Max/Lewis fights on the way.