Austria 2024 Sprint Weekend - Race 11, Sprint 3

[airshifter]

To this point a somewhat interesting start to the weekend.

The initial Sprint start was waved though for another lap after the start was aborted. At the time, I don't think anyone noticed why, nor did I. But after the fact it was found that photographers in the turn 1 area were thought to be too close and in a danger zone for debris, even though they were behind the barrier. As such, the start was aborted and some photographers moved. A smart move on the part of the FIA after Monaco.

The Sprint itself wasn't great, but had some spice at the beginning. Lando made a really late move on Max that stuck, and put him into the lead. Not to be denied, Max returned the favor with an even later moved that put him back in the lead. Both moves were probably some of the latest braking moves seen this season, and both were executed very well. In the shuffle, when Max passed Lando, Oscar moved up into second place and held it. I don't think either McLaren could have taken it back to Max, to the team let them race.


With new gravel traps you would think the track limits fiasco of last year might be gone. But it's not, with quite a few deleted times taking place. Hopefully the race won't have as many issues, and whoever wins tomorrow won't be worried about 10 or 20 seconds of penalties incoming. Shame they didn't make the gravel traps a bit closer, but at least it's an attempt.

Hulkenberg got a penalty including points for forcing Alonso off track during the Sprint. From the race footage it didn't look bad to me, more of a block pass type thing and Alonso chose to go off track rather than wait to turn. Alonso himself called the move borderline, but has also said that both a time penalty and points was a bit much. His quote was "It was too optimistic for sure, but I probably disagree with the penalty points again. You can succeed, or you can make a mistake, and maybe you pay the price or you have to give back the position, or if it's the last lap of the race, there is a time penalty, but I don't think that it was a dangerous manoeuvre. He was just attempting an overtake. Too optimistic, okay, but not the penalty points. I still don't get it," Alonso told GPblog and others in Austria.


e taken it back to Max, to the team let them race.



Yuki fined 40,000 euros for using the word "retarded" on the radio, with half the fine suspended for the rest of the season. This in spite of the fact that Yuki stated he did not have a grasp of how offensive this word was in the language, and someone who obviously is not the most fluent English speaker. I think this is a bit excessive myself, radio messages are bleeped all the time from a number of drivers, and they could have done the same with Yuki had they wanted. And it's words from a non English speaker, known to be a bit wild on the radio. And it really wasn't that long ago that the term was used in professional circles, and a somewhat common term for anyone with a mental deficit. Yuki did apologize and took responsibility, and seemed honestly upset that the use of the term was considered inappropriate, but at the same time he also said his lack of command of the language is no excuse.

Meanwhile, Merc leave the jack and some garage exhaust removal hose and piping on the back of Lewis' car when they wave him out. Both were dragged out of the garage box into the edge of the pit lane. Thankfully the team slowed him on the radio and the items came off without incident and Lewis would go into the fast lane and exit. Mercedes were handed a 5,000 euro fine for the incident.

Now I fully understand that Yuki might have offended some viewers, but as a non fluent English speaker it's an understandable mistake to some extent. But even if it had been intentional, it was words, and chances are most would understand it was not intended as offensive. The Merc mistake on the other hand, wasn't far from becoming an ugly incident. It could have caused real physical harm to those in the pit lane. I guess in this day and age the FIA are more concerned with offending someones feelings vs someones body. I think they have set a very bad example in terms of safety being less important than political correctness.



As for the race qually, the closest ever Q1 since the current knockout format started. It seems that more often than not lately, drivers have to be on it fairly quick, or even the big teams can find themselves on the outside of Q1.

Four teams hold the top 4 starting spaces. It looks to be a race with potential, even though Max sent a strong message or two in qually.

[Matthew]

It has been a perfect weekend for Max so far and it looks almost certain that he will win today's race as well to wrap up a great race weekend for him.

[Tazio]

Max goes ape-shit on Lando!
Shades of old Max rears it's ugly head.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[N. Jones]

It has been a perfect weekend for Max so far and it looks almost certain that he will win today's race as well to wrap up a great race weekend for him.

It looked that way but did not end that way.

[Matthew]

It looked that way but did not end that way.

It looked all good for Max until that crash with Lando.

[Nitrodaze]

It looked all good for Max until that crash with Lando.

Nah, he was having gearbox issues. It was inevitable that Norris would catch and pass him. Max showed he is still the dirtiest driver on the grid. It was interesting to watch his interview after the race. He simply refused to accept he was to blame for the crash.

He simply cannot do wheel-to-wheel battle cleanly as any great driver would do. He is great at driving fast but so great at the wheel-to-wheel duel with opponents in similar or better competitive cars.

It was a great day for Russell and Mercedes. At last, Mercedes wins a race in 2024. I felt Piastri should have won the race as he was the next fastest car on the track after Verstappen and Norris. He is not a rookie anymore, so he has to be in a position to mope up these sorts of opportunities if Norris has a setback, l felt.

[airshifter]

Well it looked like it might be a somewhat boring GP for Austria at the start. The gravel traps were keeping most drivers honest, and after the initial few first laps of some challenges and such much of the field settled in and played their strategy out.

Very impressed with Haas and RB, rolling the dice early on tire changes and making it work. Granted they all benefitted from the leaders dicing, but they won the races they were really racing with the cars close around them. They pitted so early I didn't see it working, but it did. Props to them and especially Haas, a great race for them.


And then the slow pit stop happened. That is how tight this field is at the front, a single slow pit stop backed up Max enough to have to hold for Lando coming through, and much of the margin Max had was gone. Couple that with Max on used softs vs Lando on new, and it was on.


Overall even with the end result I'm surprised they diced so hard for as long as they did without previous contact. Lando was really pushing it on attacking, and Max was pushing it on defending. In the end that small contact was all it took, and essentially screwed both drivers races. Max squeezed, Lando wouldn't yield, and a rightful penalty for Max in the end. As is often the case though, the penalty doesn't do anything for a car that has to retire.

As for the move itself and all the hand waving and yelling about Max, I didn't think it was anything we haven't seen over and over and is done by many drivers. The exception being that usually when a car is pushed wide, they move wide with the car attempting to push. So though Lando had every right to just hold his ground, we would see a lot of penalties if drivers just hold their line and allow the contact. As Coulthard used to say, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Lando held his ground, and lost ground in the WDC for doing it.

This is one area of rules and enforcement that stinks. You can do nothing wrong per the regs, as in Lando's case Sunday, and the driver that gets the penalty still comes out on top when it's all said and done. Though they have always taken the attitude of the penalty is weighed regardless of the outcome, there have been plenty of times when the driver at fault gets off with a pass, and the driver innocent in the mess has race ending consequences. This might change if the penalties were harsh enough to keep people honest and not make such moves to begin with.


A great race result for Merc and George bagging another win with good luck on his side. He had a solid weekend and was likely on for a podium even before the incident. Put Oscar had real pace.... maybe without the VSC he would have got George. Everyone really had fairly good races barring the front two and Perez, so most of them got that extra position or two. As for Checo, RB are going to regret keeping him if this keeps up. He should have at least been on the podium. Beaten by a Haas, damage or not, is no way for a car of that caliber to be driven.

All that said, the gloves as they say, appear to be off for Silverstone. I hope that McLaren can hound RB and hunt them down myself.