Austrian GP dividing lines: F1 track limits, team orders & Verstappen vs the rest

F1

Officials could have engraved the Austrian GP trophy in advance, so comfortable was Max Verstappen's win, but behind him saw the grid jumbled up again and a morass of track limit penalties, as Mark Hughes examines

Esteban Ocon runs off the track and onto kerb at 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

Esteban Ocon was handed 30sec of post-race penalties for running off track

Dan Istitene/F1 via Getty Images

Mark Hughes

The Austrian Grand Prix official results look quite different to the order across the line thanks to an unprecedented number of track limit penalties. But thankfully they didn’t alter the podium places, with Max Verstappen reeling off his seventh victory from nine races and going ahead of Ayrton Senna’s career tally into the bargain. He was challenged through the first few corners by Charles Leclerc but was over 24sec ahead of the Ferrari three laps from the end, enough to give him the luxury of pitting for a new set of soft tyres with which to take the fastest lap and the extra point which goes with it.

Sergio Perez’s multiple track limits infringements in qualifying on the Friday had left him starting 15th but his underlying pace was good and he was able to deliver a sparkling recovery drive to third, his late attack on Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari particularly entertaining, though probably more difficult than it should have been given that he consistently failed to use the DRS detection point to his advantage at Turn 3. He had to make the pass the hard way instead.

Sainz was very disappointed to be only fourth across the line, feeling he had better pace than Leclerc in the first stint and that he should not have been brought in on the same lap as Leclerc under an early VSC. Being stacked behind the other Ferrari lost him around 7sec and several positions. Making them back up used up tyre reserves which could otherwise have been used more productively. He was even more disappointed when the accumulated penalties for track infringements dropped him down to sixth in the official results, behind Lando Norris’s McLaren and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.

Sergio Perez battles Carlos Sainz in 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

Perez’s battle with Sainz offered several laps of entertainment

Florent Gooden / DPPI

A total of 20 track limit penalties were applied (12 in the race, eight post-race), more than 80% of them from drivers running wide at the fast final turn where the white line denoting the track extremities is impossible to see from the cockpits. This has long been the case here, but the difference was that the FIA now has more personnel available to monitor and report – enough to overwhelm race control’s ability to keep up in real time. A better solution needs to be found. There used to be a similar problem at Monza’s Lesmo 2 before the FIA got the organisers to move the gravel trap closer to the edge of the kerb. That instantly switched the problem off. That was recommended last year for this track but the organisers are reluctant because the track also hosts MotoGP and for the bikers gravel traps are considered a lethal hazard.

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Verstappen had been very conservative through the final two turns in qualifying, having fallen foul of a penalty in Q2 and this played its part in Leclerc just failing to snatch pole by 0.04sec. The reality was that, improved though the Ferrari is, it race pace was around 0.35sec shy of Verstappen’s.

A VSC for a Yuki Tsunoda incident on the 14th lap tempted many – including the Ferraris, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso – into pitting. But Red Bull reckoned it too early and was proved right. The better stint-spacing its nine-lap later first stop gave Verstappen allowed him to use the tyres harder and allowed Perez to make up a chunk of places as lower midfield cars pitted, giving him clear air to use his performance.

Being stacked behind Leclerc brought Sainz out behind Hamilton and Norris. He was able to catch and pass them in impressive style and it would have been interesting to see how he might have done had he got ahead of Leclerc at the start as he did seem to have slightly better pace. The post-Spanish GP test at Barcelona proved particularly useful for him as the team experimented with a set up suggested by him. It’s put him in a much happier place with the feel of the car.

Lewis Hamilton behind Lando Norris in 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

Hamilton trails Norris in a frustrating race for the seven-time champion

Florent Gooden / DPPI

The Mercs were blighted by understeer and poor traction and Norris in the heavily updated McLaren was able to pass Hamilton on track and pull away. Hamilton lost another place – to Alonso – at the second stops through having to take a 5sec track limits penalty then. His mood would not have been improved when the various post-race penalties dropped him behind team mate Russell, who he’d out-performed all weekend.

The patterns behind Verstappen are jumbled up in interesting ways with each different track layout. But the identity of the first past the chequer seems pre-ordained now.