Unrest increases among Verstappen's rivals: leading role for Toto Wolff

The winner of the Austrian Grand Prix need not be discussed at length. Verstappen was lord and master at the Red Bull Ring. Apart from a poorer start in the sprint race, the two-time world champion left nothing to his rivals. He runs further away from Sergio Perez again in the world championship, which everyone has known has been decided for some time.

What's going on at Ferrari?

There are a few things going on at Ferrari. On the one hand, there is the improved performance. After Friday in Spielberg, analysis already showed that Ferrari seems to have much more performance since some updates. In Canada the team of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz was already very fast, in Austria it was again in dry conditions.

Verstappen appeared to still have some behind and the Ferraris were certainly no match for the Dutchman in race pace, but it is clear that Ferrari has taken a step forward. In the race in 2023, it was often still the inferior in the duel with Aston Martin and Mercedes, while with the new updates it was suddenly the better one in Canada and Austria. At Silverstone, it should be seen whether it can do the same at a track where more is demanded of the tyres.

Still, things are rumbling inside Ferrari, as there is a lot of unrest despite the increased speed. Sainz seems to become more unhappy by the week within the team where, since the arrival of Frederic Vasseur, he is increasingly pushed into the role of second fiddle. If Sainz were actually slower this would make sense, but in Austria Sainz was faster than his teammate. It therefore makes perfect sense that Sainz was chewing his way up behind Leclerc.

Then Ferrari made things worse by bringing the two drivers in at the same time. In doing so, Sainz lost so much time, forcing him to overtake Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on the track. This forced him to ask more of his tyres and he fell short of that little extra at the end of the race to finish on the podium.

It is no secret that Sainz wants to leave Ferrari. The Spaniard has seen it at the Italian racetrack where he has clearly fallen into second place. Communication with his engineer is becoming more painful by the week. It would be better for all parties if the switch to Audi/Sauber is announced soon.

McLaren's panacea

Sainz's old team had a much nicer weekend. The contrast between the old and new MCL60 is almost unfathomable. Oscar Piastri needed three pit stops and finished in 17th place with the old spec car, Lando Norris competed from the front and finished in fifth place, ahead of Aston Martin and Mercedes drivers. In other words, McLaren had the best Mercedes car at its disposal with the updates in Austria.

It is a big boost for the Woking-based team, which is looking to bring even more updates at Silverstone, including a new car for Piastri. If both drivers can compete behind Red Bull, it would be a big step forward for McLaren. In addition, it is also a bad sign for Mercedes, which is already being put on trial by its second customer as well.

Mercedes takes another step back

For the Mercedes team, it was a lousy weekend. In the race, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell did not perform well. Russell had to come a long way anyway because of his poor qualifying, Hamilton was mostly busy with other things during the race.

Hamilton himself had a penalty to deal with because of track limits and thus threw away a better classification. Subsequently, the Briton kept moaning over the board radio, after which Toto Wolff had to protect him for the umpteenth time in his Mercedes career. We know the car is bad," he shouted over the public board radio. Sitting in Brackley as a Mercedes employee, after having worked all winter on this car, you hear your boss say that to keep the star driver happy. Not really motivating it seems.

It is not the first time Wolff has apologised to Hamilton over the board radio. The same thing happened in Baku in 2022. Then Hamilton came out of the car with back problems, while his teammate drove the same car to the podium. Why Wolff protects his driver so publicly at the team's expense is a mystery. Having to intervene at all as a team boss remains remarkable.

While it is not the first time Wolff has interfered so openly, it is remarkable given Hamilton's contract situation. Both parties continue to express that they want to continue with each other, but this weekend will have given Hamilton another insight that an eighth world title is not in the cards for now. For Mercedes, it is also a signal. Hamilton is a seven-time world champion and big star, but does he still have the patience to take Mercedes back to the top.

For Mercedes, Austria was a setback at all. Before the weekend, Wolff still announced that the Red Bull Ring would be a good track for this car, but he soon had to come back from that. The W14 did not run at all here and so the team had to go back to the drawing board. After Barcelona and Canada, the leak seemed to be over for a while, but now Ferrari and even the new McLaren are a lot faster.

Every time De Vries enters the picture.....

For Nyck de Vries, it was another painful weekend in Austria. The pressure increases with each race, especially after all Helmut Marko's statements. After qualifying, Marko was already unhappy that the two AlphaTauri drivers had not made it through Q1. On Saturday, De Vries was in slightly better shape, but on Sunday he again came into the picture too much for the wrong reasons.

For instance, he was childishly passed by Yuki Tsunoda in the first few laps. The Japanese would later ruin his race due to all sorts of penalties, but the ease with which Tsunoda passed his teammate outside at turn four must also have caught Marko's eye. Then De Vries did not make things better by making contact (again) with Kevin Magnussen.

The Dane was far from pleased with the Dutchman, who drove him off the track several times. On the outside, you have little right to speak, but the stewards gave De Vries a time penalty anyway. Even after the time penalty, De Vries appeared several more times, but never because of any good action.

Four races are rumoured to be necessary forDe Vries to keep his seat even after the summer. In the first of those four races, he seems to have scored few points. On to Silverstone, a circuit he should know well like the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps.