Why Ferrari dropping Raikkonen would help F1

In 2016 the crowd at the Austrian Grand Prix was very much down, particularly in comparison with the MotoGP race that came a few weeks later, but last weekend it was back up again - by 58%, according to the organisers - and a sizeable chunk came from Holland.

Entire grandstands were orange, as many as 12,000 people making the schlep to Spielberg in support of Max Verstappen.

Sadly, thanks to Daniil Kvyat, it was for nothing. Into the first turn, he missed his braking point, and clumsily pushed Fernando Alonso into Max Verstappen.

While Kvyat got a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident, he was at least able to continue, whereas Fernando and Max were out on the spot, and that was a shame, for both - in varying degrees, given what they were driving - would have had something to say in a largely humdrum race, somewhat redeemed by tense closing laps, with Sebastian Vettel chasing Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton pressuring Daniel Ricciardo.

If Formula 1's popularity is perhaps on the rise again this season, its decline in recent years may be ascribed to many things. The domination of one team played its part, of course, but that has been a fact of life in the 21st century: Michael Schumacher won 48 races in five seasons for Ferrari, then Vettel took 34 victories in four with Red Bull, and latterly Hamilton 31 in three for Mercedes.

"Of course," says Jackie Stewart, "there have always been times when one car's clearly superior to the rest, but we've become used to long periods of domination - by Ferrari and Red Bull and Mercedes - to a point that it seemed hardly possible for anyone else to win a race, and that's not been good for the sport: there's been a degree of dullness - there's no other word for it..."

It's a fact that fans have not taken to the quiet, numbingly complex, hybrid engines, and nor - ever alert to anything bogus - did they relish the contrivance of 'high degradation' tyres, now mercifully back in the bin from which they should never have emerged.

As well as that, they tired of a burgeoning rulebook, of a preoccupation with health and safety, and also endless penalties, many of them not the responsibility of the driver.

"I'm not interested," a McLaren supporter said to me at Goodwood, "in how many MGU-Ks or whatever Honda have used this season - in fact, I don't know or care what an MGU-K is! What I do care about is McLaren getting grid penalties all the time - talk about kicking a team when it's down."

In Austria, though, the man to suffer was Hamilton, who lost five grid positions, thanks to a gearbox change. This did nothing for his frame of mind, and neither, perhaps, did an FIA decision - the second in nine months - to take no further action against Vettel, this time following his lamentable behaviour in Baku.

Rude and aggressive after the race to anyone suggesting he might have done something wrong, Sebastian was called to a hearing in Paris last week, and by the time he got there had suddenly realised that, yes, he had been in the wrong, after all, and was terribly, terribly, sorry about it.

As after the four-letter contretemps with Charlie Whiting in Mexico last year, it worked a treat, and doubtless anyone with a competitions licence will have taken note. In Austria Hamilton accepted Vettel's apology, but pointedly declined a tacky 'on air' invitation to shake his hand. It's been late arriving this season, but students of F1 body language are starting to come into their own.

Ferrari's return to competitiveness has done much to reawaken interest in 2017, but although Kimi Raikkonen took pole position at Monaco (and should have been allowed to win the race), usually it is left to Vettel to take the fight to Mercedes, and inevitably - yet again - there are questions about Kimi's future with the team.

Sergio Marchionne, who put in an appearance at Spielberg, has expressed satisfaction with Ferrari's technical resurgence, but is less happy with other aspects. He was, I'm told, livid that Vettel's lack of discipline in Baku cost Ferrari what, with Hamilton's headrest problem, would have been an easy victory, and plainly he has doubts about Raikkonen: "All options are on the table regarding drivers for next year..."

Although Bernie Ecclestone is no longer at the helm of Formula 1, he retains his day-to-day interest in it, and told me recently he thought Ferrari needed a change. Who should they take? "Alonso, obviously," Bernie said. "They probably won't do it, but that's what they should do, no question. He's one of the best there's ever been, and for years he's been wasted..."

Vettel, I suggested, probably wouldn't go for that. "I'm not sure he'd need to," said Mr E. "It's not his team."

If there is uncertainty about Raikkonen's future, Bottas is making it ever more difficult for Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda to justify putting someone else in with Hamilton in 2018. After a wonderful comeback drive in Baku, he was copybook in Spielberg, as at Sochi leading all the way from pole, implacably dealing with pressure from Vettel in the closing laps.

Afterwards Sebastian insisted that Valtteri had jumped the start, and there's no doubt it was as pluperfect a getaway as ever you will see, but thanks to technology we know that Valtteri's reaction time was 0.201 of a second, and if that sounds freakish, to the ladies and gentlemen of the NHRA, unleashing their 11,000 horsepower, it's routine.

In personality and tastes, Bottas and Hamilton are about as disparate as two men may be, but to this point they have got along well, and the trick - with Valtteri coming up on the rails, in terms of points - will be to keep it that way.

One doubts, though, that Lewis could ever have a more straightforward team-mate, and suspects he is aware of that.