Christian Horner: "For so much of the race we had it under control, we had an 8 second lead and it looked like it was all ok. We lost some time in the pit stop as we had a wheel nut that stuck on the left rear, that cut Max's lead down more than we would have liked and from there it was hard racing. Lando exceeded track limits and was going to get a penalty but then there was the contact and that was really frustrating, it was tough racing between those two. We've still managed to get some points though and extend both Championships,10 points in the Drivers' and 16 in the Constructors', the pace of the car has been very strong this weekend, we have had two poles, Max lead the race for all but 9 laps and then the Sprint victory yesterday so it hasn't been totally disastrous, but, yes, still frustrating, we really would have liked the win, but that is racing."
George Russell claimed victory in today's Austrian Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth. In a race that was slow to the boil, late drama made up for the early stages; George taking advantage of a clash between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to win.
Starting P3 and P5 respectively, George held position at the start with Lewis passing the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz at turn one. The incident was noted however for Lewis gaining an advantage by running off track and he therefore gave the position back.
Whilst he pushed hard to get gain the position once again, his race was compromised by floor damage picked up early on and led to a loss of performance.
Both drivers ran a two-stop strategy, starting on the Medium compound tyre. George took a new Medium compound at his first stop, with Lewis the Hard. Lewis was noted for crossing the white line at pit entry however. That led to a five-second time penalty that he served at his second stop, as he took the Medium compound tyre, and dropped him behind the McLaren of Piastri.
The team's race looked set to end with George finishing P3 and Lewis P6 before Verstappen and Norris clashed for the lead on lap 64. With both cars suffering damage, it was with an element of good fortune that George cycled through to the lead. He closed out the final few laps without incident to take his second Grand Prix victory and the team's first since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: It is a great feeling to get back on to the top step of the podium. It is a fantastic reward for the hard work and efforts of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. We have taken good steps forward in recent races, and we are excited about what is still to come. We knew our outright pace today wouldn't quite be enough to challenge for victory. We therefore made sure we maximised our race and were able to pick up the pieces, should anything happen. We enjoyed some good fortune but that is motor racing.
George did a fantastic job throughout the race to keep himself within touching distance of the front two. It was a third place on pace, and we would have been pleased with that as it highlights the progress we continue to make. We did think there could be a chance for more though with the battle ahead and we were able to take advantage of that. Lewis, meanwhile, was unfortunate today. Firstly, that he had to give the position back to the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and secondly, as he picked up floor damage which caused him a loss of performance. Nevertheless, he fought hard and drove a strong race to take a valuable P4.
We now look forward to Silverstone next week. We are encouraged by our overall performance this weekend at a track that has not normally been a favourite for our cars. Our aim over the next few races is to continue to show progress and aim to get closer to the front.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We'll allow ourselves to enjoy the win today; it's been a while! A big well done to George and the whole team across Brackley and Brixworth. We know fine well we have more work to do before we can take victory on merit, but it's taken a lot of effort and determination from the team to get us to a point where we are regularly fighting for podiums. That is what put us in a position today to benefit from Max and Lando's misfortune.
Lewis had a tougher time. He picked up floor damage early in the race and, that together with the time penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry, took him out of contention. That said, we've managed to score good points with both cars today and the picture in the Constructors' Championship has improved dramatically over the last three races. We will enjoy tonight and first thing tomorrow, we will shift our focus to Silverstone. It's a great event with a fantastic crowd, and the team and drivers will be doing everything we can to build on our recent momentum.
The Austrian Grand Prix is often one of the more exciting races of the season and so it proved to be today, although the final result was mixed for Scuderia Ferrari HP. On the one hand, one can celebrate a return to the podium, thanks to a third place for Carlos Sainz, who drove a very solid race, while on the other, there's great disappointment for Charles Leclerc who tried to stage an almost impossible recovery following a collision at the start.
At the start, Carlos was passed by Lewis Hamilton for fourth place, but the Englishman soon had to give back the position because he had made the passing move off the track in the run-off area. Charles' race was immediately compromised when, at turn 1, he was squeezed between Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez and he came off worst, having to pit to replace a damaged front wing. From then on, Charles pinned his hopes on a Safety Car that never came to let him close up on the field. His pace was the same as Carlos' and he only just missed out on picking up a point as he finished eleventh. Carlos fought from start to finish in a really close battle with George Russell, most of the time scrapping for third place. At the most, the Mercedes driver had a five second advantage and after the last pit stop, when he rejoined on Hard tyres, while Carlos was on Mediums, the gap grew gradually smaller, getting down to under 2 seconds on lap 66, just as out in front, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen collided, with both their cars sustaining damage. That provoked a Virtual Safety Car while debris was cleared off the track and at the restart, the duel resumed, with Piastri now joining Sainz and Russell, the Australian on much fresher tyres. It meant he was able to pass the Ferrari for second place, behind Russell. It was Carlos' fifth podium finish of the season, the Scuderia's tenth, which confirms Carlos' fourth place in the Drivers' championship, closing in on Norris and Charles, who came away from this event with just the two points from yesterday's Sprint race. The team is still second in the Constructors' standings.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: Today's race gives us mixed feelings as it's positive to be back on the podium with Carlos, who drove a solid race and brought home good points for the championship, but we didn't score with Charles, who was involved in a racing incident at the start. So, all in all not a bad weekend even if there's a bit of frustration as we probably could have done a better job especially at the beginning of it.
We made a good step forward from Friday morning onwards but it's not enough and we must continue to push as we need to have two cars fighting for maximum points at every race.
Once again we need to work to improve our qualifying pace as starting nearer the front in such a tight field means having a better chance of finishing at the front, picking up opportunities and stay away from troubles. One final word on this weekend, to see such a close fight for the lead, with drivers really pushing one another, eventually ending with an unexpected winner, while there were other equally exciting battles lower down the field, is definitely very good for the popularity of this sport.
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "We come away from this event in Austria with a double podium finish in the Sprint and a podium finish for Oscar in the main race, which confirms once again the trajectory of the team. We are now in a condition to contend for the top positions at every kind of circuit.
"There's quite a lot of confirmation of the strengths, in terms of the car performance, in terms of the operations, in terms of the whole team working together, united in order to try and bring McLaren to the front of the grid.
"At the same time, there's also quite a bit of frustration, because of what happened yesterday with the lap-deletion for Oscar, and today, with the collision between Lando and Max, which meant we could not see this battle going to the Chequered Flag, which would have been quite exciting.
"We will make sure we use this frustration to be even more determined and motivated to make our strengths even stronger and be ready for a second part of the season, which has all the conditions to be quite exciting for the papaya colours."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "Today's result is a reflection of our car pace this weekend. We did not give our drivers a car to compete for points. We knew this run of races would be challenging but we need to focus on the future and get through this phase. Lance and Fernando battled for every place. Next weekend is our home race at Silverstone in front of our fans and colleagues. We need to get our heads down and improve, quickly."
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: "We managed to score one point today after a hard fought Austrian Grand Prix. While it means we continue our points-scoring run, we certainly leave Spielberg with plenty of things to review in order to improve for next time. We probably did not maximise our performance level and that meant our direct rivals capitalised and scored valuable points. We immediately have Silverstone to focus on next weekend and we look forward to finishing this triple header at Enstone's home race."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: It was a tough day for both drivers, firstly with Logan making contact on the first lap, requiring him to pit for a new front wing, and Alex struggling to get good track position and clean air, impacting his ability to fight through the field. We also knew today, with the high temperatures, was going to be a tyre management challenge. It's been a tough two weekends for the team, last time out in Barcelona and here in Austria, however, we will look to take the learnings from this weekend and come back stronger next weekend for our home Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "We decided to start today's race on mediums, similarly to the majority of the other cars, and at end of Lap 2 Daniel was in P12 and Yuki in P13. At this stage, we decided to split the two strategies, pitting Daniel and leaving Yuki out for the first stint. The undercut worked very well with Daniel as we were able to gain positions against the two Alpines, but the Haas cars were able to stay in front of him for the rest of the race. In the last laps, he tried to put additional pressure on Magnussen, but we were not able to overtake him, so Daniel finished P9, scoring two very important points. As for Yuki, his race was different and a bit more difficult. We went long for the first stint on the medium and the pace was similar to the car in front on a similar strategy, but running a shorter last stint, we were not able to maximise the advantage, finishing P15. Mixed feelings, but we are still positive, and we now switch our thoughts to next week's race in Silverstone, where we will try to improve further and get more important points."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "In the few days since Barcelona, everyone at the factory and at the track has been working hard on extending our understanding of the updates we introduced in Spain as part of our aggressive development programme. That work continued here during the only Free Practice session, while the Sprint also provided us with valuable data. It is never ideal to do specifications comparison during a Sprint weekend, but we felt that it was a necessary investment for our midterm future. The team and drivers did a very good job putting together the best configuration possible for Saturday and Sunday. We are bringing home two good points, with Daniel finishing in P9 after an intense battle today, and following yesterday's strong qualifying, which saw us finishing up at less than two-hundredths from Q3. Yuki was only a fraction behind in both qualifying and the race, but with the midfield battle being as tight as ever, it was enough for him to fall outside of the points today. Once again, we only have a couple of days before we are back on track, this time at Silverstone, not far from our UK-based headquarter. The smallest pace difference can make you go from a points finish to the back of the grid, so everyone at the factory will be flat out to further pursue our car development programme."
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber fought through a hot afternoon at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu coming to the chequered flag unscathed but outside the points. Despite the team showing an improved turn of pace compared to yesterday's sprint, the team duo finished in 16th and 17th place respectively.
The team will now head to the birthplace of Formula One, Silverstone, for the final leg of the European triple-header.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "We knew our starting positions would likely compromise our eventual classification, unless any special circumstance outside of our control would intervene: indeed, we weren't able to make up much ground. Still, we can take some positives from today's race, in particular in comparison to yesterday's Sprint: we did a much better job at managing our tyres, and we controlled the overheating on both axles better, which was a massive issue in the Sprint. We were consistent with both the medium and hard compounds and, when it came to pace, we were not far from rivals like Aston Martin, Williams and Tsunoda. Of course, there's still a lot of work to do to recover the gap and fight for points, but today was a small step in the right direction. The changes we made to Zhou's car, which meant he started from the pit lane, made him more comfortable, while Valtteri was closer to Stroll, Tsunoda and Albon from lap one. In terms of strategy, we split the cars to make use of all new sets of tyres available, and, considering our starting positions, that was the best decision. We started on hards with Zhou and were able to extend his second stint on mediums to give him a more consistent pace. With Valtteri, we wanted to extend the first stint on mediums as much as possible in order not to compromise the remaining two on hards. We eventually reached our targets this afternoon: we know these are just marginal ones, but the team must continue thinking that, if we push all together, if we are aggressive and able to do more in every area, we can get to the points. It's not time to give up, but to react like we did between yesterday and today. We saw our competitors score points, especially Haas, and that's not ideal for our championship fight, but that goes to show that, if we can find more performance starting from the next race in Silverstone, there will be opportunities to be seized in the remaining races."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team scored a double points finish with Nico Hulkenberg sixth, and Kevin Magnussen eighth, at the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 11 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Red Bull Ring.
Hulkenberg started from ninth on the grid on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and resisted the threat of Esteban Ocon, before gaining a spot when Charles Leclerc pitted with damage. Hulkenberg pitted on Lap 11 for White hard tires, before coming in again on Lap 38 for another set of the hardest compound. Hulkenberg moved up to sixth place late on following Lando Norris' retirement, having undercut Red Bull's Sergio Perez, and kept the Mexican at bay during the closing stages to collect the best finish of 2024 for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team.
Magnussen took the start from P12 position on medium tires and gained a couple of spots through the opening stages to run inside the top 10. Magnussen also executed a two-stop strategy, stopping on Lap 10 for hard tires and once more on Lap 38 for another set of hard tires, and emerged in ninth place, which became eighth in the wake of Norris' exit. Magnussen fended off RB's Daniel Ricciardo through the final laps to secure eighth place.
Sixth and eighth marks MoneyGram Haas F1 Team's strongest result of the year and lifts the team up to seventh place in the Constructors' Championship, on 19 points.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "I'm just so happy for everyone in the team. Sometimes we get unlucky but today our execution was amazing, Nico and Kevin drove well, and pit stops were good, everything was great. I'm speechless, I'm just so happy for everyone to get this result and for Nico to beat Perez on merit, that's a huge statement."
The Austrian Grand Prix produced a surprising climax, with George Russell emerging victorious after a prolonged duel between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris ended with both of them pitting with a damaged tyre. While Red Bull's Dutch driver managed to get going again and finish fifth, McLaren's Englishman had to retire. Russell thus ends a winless streak for both himself and Mercedes which lasted for 34 Grands Prix and 595 days, dating back to Brazil in 2022. This is Russell's second Formula 1 win, while for Mercedes it's number 126. Joining him on the podium were Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari).
As expected, the most effective strategy was a two-stop: those who did three or more - Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso and Sargeant - did so for unforeseen circumstances, not by choice. All the drivers lined up on the grid on Medium tyres while, starting from pit lane, Zhou went with the Hard. The C4 and the C3 were the undoubted protagonists of this race, with the C5 only putting in an appearance at the end, used by Verstappen for the last seven laps after his enforced stop and by Alonso, who was trying for the race fastest lap, which he did indeed set. Daniel Ricciardo drove the longest stint of the race, completing a 34 lap third and final stint on the Hard tyre. The prize on Mediums goes to Pierre Gasly who did 29 laps and in this case too, the French Alpine driver did it in his final stint.
Mario Isola: "When you least expect it, the sparks fly! The first two thirds of the race were generally linear, it only took a small problem at Verstappen's second pit stop to bring together on track the two outstanding drivers of this weekend, thus triggering a thrilling on-the-limit duel. It produced a very exciting finale which, in the end, worked out to the benefit of George Russell, who was thus able to secure his second ever Grand Prix win: congratulations to him and to Mercedes! Overall, there was actually a lot of overtaking in this race, some of it very spectacular.
From our side there were no surprises. The tyres behaved exactly as expected, both when compared to the simulations carried out before arriving in Austria and based on the analysis of the data gathered on Friday and yesterday. The strategy predictions were also pretty much respected. Medium and Hard were the main choices for the race. The Medium probably performed a touch better, especially on the more competitive cars. Although they had two sets of Hards available, the Red Bull pair chose the C4 for the third stint, for this precise reason and also to be in the same situation as the competitors they were fighting with in this phase of the race. On the other hand, the C3, which suffered slightly less from degradation, worked well for those who opted to run a very short first stint on the Medium before then exploiting the greater consistency of the white-banded tyres, thus managing to get into the points, as did the Haas pair of Hulkenberg and Magnussen, as well as Ricciardo (Racing Bulls)."
