Sweet Victory in Austria. Ferrari wins at Red Bull’s Home

It has been a season full of a series of episodes that are making Ferrari’s journey- in returning championships competitors – quite rocky.

Weekends in which drivers and pilot have been perfect, before crumbling apart on race day with the common theme of issues related to car reliability, team strategy and driver hierarchy. Sometime all coming at once. Austria was bound to be a little ticking bomb inside Ferrari’s paddock. Charles Leclerc seemed to be the preferred victim of these above-mentioned issues, and from the episodes in Silverstone, one could expect a reaction from the Monegasque. On the other hand, Sainz wanted to confirm his form and extend more gains after is first career win in Silverstone. Thankfully, Ferrari pulled off a sweet victory at the Austria GP

Austria GP is Red Bull Homeland

In all this, Red Bull is racing in homeland. A beautiful track the one in Spielberg, Austria. Made for true Formula 1 racing, made to show Red Bull as the true host of the weekend. The orange cloud, almost consistently present at turn 9, was a showing of the passion and the support of the local for their local hero and champion, Max Verstappen, that showed once more that championship winner spirit, placing a – surprisingly – difficult Red Bull to drive in P2, limiting the points damage to the least possible.

Austria GP Sprint of the Season

The weekend program had one of the four Sprint of the season taking place on Saturday, the 100 Km format that makes qualifying for Sunday race a bit more exciting, with this mini-race format. Friday standard qualify, had Checo Perez pushed to P13, with the Mexican at the beginning of its racing weekend nightmare, where first he recovered to 5^th place in Sprint Saturday, to then fall out of the race on Sunday after a contact with George Russell.

With Red Bull drivers fighting against the odds of a flawed car setup and Checo Perez not at his top form, the star of the Austria GP became Ferrari. Saturday Sprint was a first taste of what to expect from Leclerc and Sainz. Finished P2 and P3 in sprint, with few remarks over the fact that the two drivers engaged a tough racing spell against each other, allowing Max to cruise to victory, instead of acting like a team to get Max off P1.

Lesson learned in Ferrari; the drivers are racing against each other to determine whom is #1 in the team. Binotto also stated that until a margin in points between the twos, there isn’t a hierarchy, and it is up for grabs. Sunday confirmed it.

Austria GP Action

Leclerc right at the start decides this time to defend his position against Sainz, rather than start building the attack to Verstappen. With Sainz getting stuck battling with a very much improved Mercedes, Leclerc start building an incredible racing pace that on Lap 12 resulted in an incredible overtake to Verstappen for first place, with the dutch confirming the greater issues with Red Bull and poor tire performance.

The Austrian grand prix proceeds smoothly for the two Ferrari, with Leclerc and Sainz maintaining the lead and with team strategy looking to capitalize the weekend. Another positive note comes from team-parent Haas, which this weekend was testing a new hybrid part of the engine, and it looked extremely fast, especially on straights, which is Ferrari weakness, if compared with Red Bull’s engines.

The ideal scenario planned by Ferrari was finally realizing, Leclerc incredible in passing Verstappen three times throughout the race, Sainz getting close by to regain second position, and with Red Bull with Perez retired, Verstappen needing to pit another time by lap 60/65. This would have resulted with a potential P1 and P2 for Ferrari, and likely Verstappen falling in 5^th place.

Sainz power unit catches fire, retires, and gives a golden opportunity to Verstappen.

Another Engine Failure at Austria GP

Fourth engine failure for Ferrari this season.

Reliability issues directly betrayed the Spaniard and disadvantages Leclerc once more, in terms of points for championship.

In fact, Verstappen limits the damage to a mere 5-point loss, incredible if compared to the potential loss both Verstappen and Red Bull were bound to lose this weekend.

Austria sees Leclerc returning to victory after 5 grand prix. Ferrari celebrates winning at Red Bull’s home. Hopefully, Binotto will revise hierarchy and start building a support team for Charles Leclerc to engage battle with Verstappen.

On July 24, Formula 1 returns to France.  Ferrari wants to continue the winning streak. The mission to recover the margin from Red Bull is possible.

Forza Ferrari!