Heading to this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull will be wary of McLaren's Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and his Formula 1 World Champion team have dominated in the past but an intriguing rivalry is building up between the pair may change that.
The 11th round of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season is a sprint weekend, for the third time this year, with a 100km race at Spielberg's Red Bull Ring on Saturday before the main event on Sunday.
Red Bull's triple world champion, cheered on by his orange army of travelling fans, will hope to stretch the 69-point lead he enjoys over closest challenger Norris in the papaya-liveried McLaren.
Norris has a point to make after taking pole in Spain last Sunday and finishing second. He was also runner-up in Canada -- both races the 24-year-old felt he should have won.
Spielberg is the shortest lap, in terms of time, on the calendar with Verstappen taking pole last year in just over 64 seconds.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner: "On such a short lap it's going to be so tight. We expect Mclaren and Lando to be fast again. Ferrari, Mercedes, who knows? If you look at the gap to those guys after the (Spanish) race it was pretty similar to last year. The one who's stepped up is Lando.
"We're having to fight really hard for the wins at the moment and we're having to be on the top of our game as a team ..., that's Formula One, that's as it should be," added Horner.
Norris: We're on a good roll
Winner in Miami in May, Norris was also runner-up in Imola and China while last year's Austrian race won by Verstappen, for the fourth time in six years, was where McLaren brought breakthrough upgrades.
The Briton has now finished second 10 times in 23 races. He was 2.2 seconds behind Verstappen in Barcelona and 3.8 adrift in Canada. The gap at Imola was 0.7 and he beat the Dutch driver by 7.6 in Miami.
Austria, and then Silverstone, are favourite circuits where Norris has gone well in the past: "We're on a good roll. We're doing well ... I need to just tidy up a few little bits and we'll be on top. I'm confident. Every weekend we go into now, the car's performing extremely well. We're always there or thereabouts within a couple of tenths of pole."
Verstappen, whose Orange Army will be out in force at Red Bull Ring, looked ahead to his scond 'home race' in the team preview: "We always feel really welcome and enjoy coming back to Austria, being a home race for Red Bull.
Verstappen: The scenery and mountains around here are great
"It is always good to see the Orange Army fans here and really feel that support from the grandstand. It is another Sprint race this weekend, which always ends up being a hectic and busy weekend for us.
"It is really important to nail the set up of the car straight away and analyse how best we build and improve on our previous races, especially as qualifying is always close here. The track lends itself to a lot of overtaking so I’m sure it will be an exciting race.
"The Team performed well here last year so hopefully we can do the fans proud this weekend and bring it home with another win," declared Verstappen, who will be targeting his 62nd F1 career win and his eighth GP win in 2024. He has won the Austrian GP a record four times so far.
Is the gulf between Verstappen and Perez widening?
Verstappen and Norris's teammates, Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri, will be hoping to get in on the act after disappointing results in Spain -- the Mexican only good for P8 and Australian P7.
Perez, who inked a two-year extension deal with Red Bull, knows he has to deliver this weekend: "I had a difficult weekend in Spain but it’s one we have learnt from. I struggled with the balance of the car all weekend. We couldn’t get the set-up consistent and in a window for qualifying or to race the race we wanted, the grid place penalty also harmed us.
"This weekend in Austria we have everything in place to have a cleaner weekend, the Team and I know where we must improve and make changes and we will implement them. It’s then my job to get the most out of the car, we’ll have limited running due to the Sprint weekend.
"I need to make the most of first practice and attack qualifying and the Sprint from the start. We want and need a complete weekend. Austria is always a great race, it’s Red Bull’s home and that makes for a brilliant atmosphere, I’m looking forward to it," added Perez.
Mercedes and Ferrari should be in the mix in Austria
With seven times F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton taking his first podium of the season with Mercedes in Spain and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz holding the race lap record at the Red Bull Ring, albeit from 2020.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in his team's preview: "It is a very different circuit to last weekend," cautioned There is plenty of low to mid-speed content, punctuated by some longer straights. That will provide another challenge and reference point for our car."
The chaos of last year, with the results revised five hours after the finish following a flurry of penalties to nearly half the field for exceeding track limits, should no longer be a concern with a strip of gravel added to turns nine and 10.
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(Reporting by Alan Baldwin & Additional Quotes by Agnes Carlier)
2024 F1 World Championship Standings after ten rounds:
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