It will be a matter of thousandths of a second, between multiple cars, that will decide the starting grid of the Austrian GP and the Sprint race. Very short, fast lap and with a group of single-seaters that on much more complete tracks found themselves enclosed in extremely close gaps.
McLaren arrives at Red Bull with the credentials of the best single-seater, the “easiest” one to bring to the optimal operating condition. An acknowledgment also received from Helmut Marko.
Yes, but the opportunities that are not transformed into the best result, into victory, are starting to weigh heavily. Norris does not hide his ambition to continue the challenge to Verstappen, also for the title, however, of the last four races Max has still won three, even with Red Bull which we have seen is no longer far ahead of everyone.
First thing: continue progress
“The car is in excellent condition and we will take advantage of what we learned in Spain to continue pushing. We are not focused on setting specific objectives, our aim is to continue to improve what we do every weekend and let the results speak for themselves. We’ll see what we can do.” comments Norris towards the Austrian GP.
Max’s true antagonist is Lando
If we want to read a negative data from the last race, in addition to the failure to convert Norris’s pole into victory, the performances of Piastri, only seventh, more than 33″ from the winner. The Australian wants to make up for it in the second of the three GP in close sequence.
“I can’t wait to get to Austria and start working, get back in the car on Friday and work hard with the engineers to start the weekend on the right foot.
In Barcelona I was aiming to do much more, but the fact that we managed to score some points in a frustrating race only made things better. Credit to the team for the work they are doing consistently and we hope to be able to maintain the momentum.”
Stella and another weekend of struggle
The GP at the Red Bull Ring celebrates a sort of “anniversary”. Twelve months ago McLaren’s recovery in competitiveness began, with the new package – a de facto B single-seater – introduced on Norris’ car, then also specific for Piastri from Silverstone.
Imagining this parable was probably an excess of optimism even in Woking. A year later, the MCL38 is a top single-seater and regularly capable of racing for victory. Not without details to improve, after having remedied the gaps on the slow curves.
“We head to Austria for the second race of a challenging triple-header, having left Spain with another great result for the team. We have achieved many positive results this season, but The Red Bull Ring is one of the shortest circuits on the calendar, so we expect this weekend to be very close.“, says Andrea Stella. “We remain focused in our efforts to continue to improve and constantly compete with the top teams around us.”
