2022 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Race Analysis

One of the classic tracks on the Formula 1 calendar proved to be an exciting race once again. There was talks about track limits being too stingy, but I am in full support of the penalties. The white lines define the track, and if drivers choose to push the limits of that, then they risk penalties. It adds an extra element of precision to those that are able to push it to the last millimeter.

Ferrari so close to a perfect race. Some concern came up when Ferrari appeared committed to the one stop, but then switched to the two stop with 20 laps to go. Also Ferrari choosing to make Leclerc pass on track several times, very bold, but Charles was absolutely dynamite today. Every Ferrari fan having a panic attack in the last 10 laps with this throttle pedal issue, but fortunately Leclerc was able to drive around that to a victory. Heartbreak for Sainz as he was about to make his pass on Verstappen, which would have been an easy 1-2 to Ferrari, a massive points day down the toilet. That's motorsports though.

Red Bull can be pretty happy that Verstappen walks away with 2nd place, and losing very little to Charles. They have to be quite bitter on the Perez side of the garage. His post quali penalty on Friday should never have happened as there was no reason the stewards shouldn't have caught that before Q3. We all saw it live for goodness sakes. Horner is right to be frustrated as Perez pushed the engine hard and used up a set of soft tires. In any case, Perez battled through the Sprint Race and was set for a good Sunday, only to be knocked out by Russell.

Mercedes appear to now have a car much more competitive. A double driver error in quali put them on the back foot, but both left the race with with the most points they could hope for. Hamilton seems to be coming to grips with the car and his luck has changed so he is now in position to maximize his points. Russell perhaps is making a few mistakes here and there that are becoming costly. His collision with Perez was almost a racing incident, but the bottom line is he did have plenty of room on the inside, and Perez earned the right to the space. 5 second penalty was fair, and honestly I think he should have progressed better through the field. 3rd and 4th is still a great result for the team.

Alpine were probably happy to have Ocon run his race and finish 5th. Alonso was deep in the action all race long and to come from pretty much last to scoring a point has to be pretty satisfying. It did appear he struggled on the brakes, but that could have been down to tire wear. Alonso could really use some luck on the days he is driving 10 out 10.

Haas looked phenomenal. Great quali pace, showed strong pace and mature driving in the sprint race, which carried over to Sunday's Grand Prix. Mick Schumacher was pretty clear he felt he was the faster driver, and it seems he was correct. Perhaps his best drive of his career. Fast, and was battling hard with cars and drivers faster than him. Magnussen was in the points all day as well, so the double points is a huge result.

Mclaren have to be happy with their day. Despite Lando being thrown some disadvantages with his engine and brakes this weekend, he was in there fighting all race long. There was times it appeared he may have had a chance to be ahead of Ocon. Ricciardo seemed to benefit from the VSC and found himself in 9th which is a good result for him.

Alfa Romeo had a disappointing day. There was times where the car looked good, but the race just never developed for them. Bottas hasn't looked that impressive over the last few weeks, being out paced by Zhou on more than one occasion. Austria is a good track for him, but he still didn't perform as some may have expected. Zhou had more bad luck this weekend and was never given a fair chance to try for points, if it was even possible.

Williams may have made some gains after all. Albon had a very strong drive and was up there in 10th for a while but was eventually passed by faster cars. He deserves a lot of credit for his driving performance. Latifi on the other hand. It's hard to show a bad performance when you are already the worst driver, but he was terrible race. Maybe the car was just broken from lap 1, but he had zero pace.

Aston Martin was setup for a tough race after their horrendous qualifying performance. To their credit, they were in fight for a lot of the race. Stroll at times was up in the points and Vettel moved forward until he was punted off by Gasly. Points were probably unlikely, but they at least were much better in the race than they were in quali.

AlphaTauri probably should have just packed up early. The car was slow, but any time the car got up in a position to give hope for a result, the driver's seemed to throw that away. Gasly's collision with Vettel was much worse than Russell on Perez. Without Vettel getting his time penalty, the AT drivers finish dead last of the cars still running. Ouch.

Drive of the Day: Charles Leclerc. He had brilliant pace, he made his passes for the lead on track. Great tire wear. Drove through a reliability issue with Max pressuring him. Easy decision.

 

I was surprised that Red Bull didn't seem to have the top speed advantage they usually have, especially with the higher altitudes where their engine usually does better than other manufacturers.

What body work did Ferrari change?