How Norris and McLaren finally took on F1’s top teams “on merit”

There was a very good race behind Max Verstappen, the dominant winner for the second week in a row at the Red Bull Ring – this time for Formula 1’s 2021 Austrian Grand Prix. He was so crushingly in command that it evoked Lewis Hamilton’s win in Hungary and Spain last year, which serves to highlight just how far the formbook has swung in Red Bull’s favour this season.

Verstappen was so good and so far away from his opposition that he may as well have been in a different race. In the fight behind, and briefly in the Dutchman’s orbit, everything really centred on one driver.

Lando Norris nearly upstaged Verstappen in qualifying, then quietly threatened him at the start and safety car restart, before actually easing the championship leader’s path to a fifth 2021 win.

The seeds for that disruption to Red Bull’s ‘Class A’ rival – Mercedes – were sown in qualifying. Norris’s 0.048-second gap to Verstappen was flattered by the polesitter having to run at the head of the pack at the end of Q3 without a tow, but it got him critically ahead of both Mercedes cars on the grid.

“We were the makers of our own issues a bit with the poor qualifying,” assessed Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin.

The problem Mercedes faced was “that very soft compound, the C5, just wasn’t giving us as much in the hot conditions on Saturday as we were getting from it on Friday,” again per Shovlin.

Valtteri Bottas, fifth on the grid behind Hamilton, Sergio Perez and the two young front row starters, reckoned McLaren had “found something with the C5, it seems to work well with their car”. This slots in with one of the critical parts of the weekend – that Pirelli’s compound range was a step softer compared to the Styrian GP, and the fluctuating temperatures during the repeat event kept things unpredictable.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

In short, with every team set to improve thanks to the unusual nature of a second go at one track, this added an extra consideration. In qualifying, Mercedes clearly underperformed by not keeping the softs in the best operating window – something it has struggled with all season, although usually with getting them up to temperature – and McLaren took advantage.

But the orange squad’s work in the week between events was a critical factor too.

“There was some fine-tuning done on the cars this weekend to extract even more performance,” said McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl after qualifying. “Small little updates on the floor that we also brought to the track, which probably helped.”

"On both tyre sets we had good pace and we could manage the pace through the whole stint, so very pleased with that. We improved the car compared to last weekend. We learned a few things to make it last a bit better in the race and I think that showed" Max Verstappen

With Norris alongside him on the front row and vowing to attack if he could, Verstappen clearly felt the threat was real. This was evidenced by his car positioning for the start – pointed slightly towards the McLaren, which he made sure to cover off when Norris made the slightly better getaway as the lights went out.

Verstappen was clear after the opening corners, which at the front of the race were mostly notable for Hamilton unsuccessfully attacking Perez at the outside of the long, downhill right of Turn 4. But the leader had to worry about Norris again a little while later.

The race had been suspended by the safety car’s intervention when Verstappen had just exited the super-fast Turns 7/8 sequence on the opening lap of 71 because Esteban Ocon had pulled over with broken right-front suspension on the slightly meandering straight between the tight, uphill right of Turn 3 and Turn 4.

The Alpine driver’s miserable weekend was ended when he was unfortunate to be pinched between Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo and Mick Schumacher’s Haas, with glancing contact from the Alfa doing the damage in the Turn 3 lap one melee – a consequence Ocon acknowledged of “starting the race at the back”.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, and Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The race restarted on lap four and Verstappen waited until reaching the grid hatchings and well beyond the exit of the final corner before powering away.

“I knew that Lando had good speed, so I had to make sure that I had a good restart,” Verstappen later explained.

McLaren had been rapid in a straight line all weekend – as it had been for the Styrian event too. Armed with the potent Mercedes power unit, and set-up to produce excellent traction levels under acceleration, Norris had been 1.5mph quicker than Verstappen through the speed trap in qualifying. In the race, he was the fastest driver at the finish line speed trap – which of course included a DRS zone, but that also demonstrates how quickly he was exiting the final corner.

Verstappen’s restart tactics bought him a 0.4s advantage as he roared back to racing speed and from there he was never really untroubled. Before he stopped to go from medium tyres to hards on lap 32 – the last of the leaders, such was his advantage – his lead had reached 12.1s. His pace was metronomic in the mid-low 1m09s, other than the one occasion he reached the 1m08s.

“On both tyre sets we had good pace and we could manage the pace through the whole stint, so very pleased with that,” he said. “We improved the car compared to last weekend. We learned a few things to make it last a bit better in the race and I think that showed.”

As Verstappen was scampering clear at the restart, Norris was about to be involved in the biggest drama of his race.

Perez had swarmed over the McLaren’s rear on the run down the pitstraight and he attacked to the outside of Turn 1 – the 90-degree uphill right. Norris held his line and Perez ran off the track, sweeping back on from the runoff with his nose ahead, but then falling back behind as they raced up the hill, the Mercedes cars swooping in the slipstream behind.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B,Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Erik Junius

Norris was firmly back in front as they exited Turn 3, where Bottas powered by Hamilton on the outside line, but Perez was in position to attack again at Turn 4. Again, he chose the outside line, and they went side-by-side through most of the corner. But, eventually, something had to give as Norris again held his line. Perez ended up in the gravel and fell to 10th – Hamilton repassing Bottas as they raced by the Red Bull.

Inevitably, the combatants disagreed over who was at fault.

“He pushed me off the track,” said Perez.

“He didn't commit to his overtake the way he should have done, he put himself in the gravel, so I don’t feel it was my mistake,” said Norris.

"The whole of the first stint I think both Mercs were quicker than me, which was not a surprise, something I was expecting, but to hold them off as well as we did was a little bit of a surprise and for that long into the race" Lando Norris

The stewards decided unequivocally that Norris was to blame – the McLaren driver “judged not to give Perez enough room and Perez was forced off the track”, which ignited much debate about penalty consistency. This was heightened by Perez picking up a pair of five-second penalties, the same sanction Norris received, in two clashes with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as they fought over eighth early in the race’s second half.

The first was very similar to Perez’s incident with Norris, although the Red Bull rather barged back alongside when the Ferrari had just forged fractionally ahead on the outside, and in the second incident a snap of oversteer exiting the sweeping Turn 6 left-hander took him closer to Leclerc and put the incensed Monegasque driver in different gravel this time.

The penalties combined to cost Perez a spot in the final order, with the charging Carlos Sainz Jr elevated to Perez’s fifth after being allowed past Leclerc and then battling by Daniel Ricciardo – resurgent after another poor qualifying – on the penultimate lap.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Norris’s penalty was not announced until the leaders were on lap 20, by which pointed he’d got himself involved in another battle. This one was without controversy and featured driving so impressive even Hamilton felt cause to comment.

With Perez removed from the fight for second, Hamilton had harried the McLaren. For 16 laps he was within DRS range but was frustrated, as Norris’s top speed and strong acceleration made for a troublesome combination, even for a works Mercedes.

Eventually, after McLaren had discussed with Norris that he could continue defending hard against Hamilton – in a way he had notably opted not to do against Bottas and Perez in the Styrian GP – so long as he didn’t hurt his left-rear tyre too much, Hamilton’s pressure broke through. On the lap Norris’s penalty was announced, with Verstappen 8.6s gone in the lead, Hamilton attacked to the outside of Turn 3, then used DRS to seize the inside line before Turn 4.

“Such a great driver, Lando”, the world champion said after passing by.

“It was tough, it wasn’t easy,” Norris said of his battle with Hamilton. “Like the whole of the first stint I think both Mercs were quicker than me, which was not a surprise, something I was expecting, but to hold them off as well as we did was a little bit of a surprise and for that long into the race.”

Norris was left to trail Hamilton, for much of the ensuing 10 laps after being passed, running generally 2.5s ahead of Bottas, who had been “just trying to play the long game and trying not to kill the tyres”. He added: “I saw Lewis was putting quite a bit of pressure on Lando without really trying to be close and sliding around, and [I] just decided to back off slightly.”

But when McLaren called Norris in at the end of lap 30, the gap to Bottas having just dipped under two seconds, Mercedes didn’t hesitate. As Norris had to serve his penalty before being serviced, “we decided to follow him in” with Bottas – per Shovlin. The Finn emerged comfortably in third, with Hamilton coming in at the end of the following lap, and Verstappen one lap further still.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Once the stops had shaken out, Mercedes was in a solid ‘damage limitation’ position. Far from the leader, but in control of the other podium spots. That was until it realised that Hamilton’s car was suddenly wounded.

On lap 29, “out of Turn 10, where there’s a pretty aggressive kerb”, according to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, Hamilton had damaged the aerodynamic parts around his left-rear brake drum, which Wolff said cost him “about 30 [downforce] points” but insisted “we didn’t see that was a driving mistake”. Autosport estimates that this would have been worth around three-quarters of a second per lap, and the damage was evident in Hamilton’s car handling on lap 30, when he suddenly had to catch oversteer snaps through Turns 6 and 7 – losing 0.6s compared to the previous tour.

“As it was all from the rear, the balance became difficult and we were damaging the rears with sliding,” Shovlin said of Hamilton’s early laps in his second stint.

Hamilton had little chance of resisting Norris in the same way the McLaren had done earlier and a lap later Norris nipped by on the inside into Turn 6, having had a look on the outside of Turn 4

The damage was having such an impact on Hamilton’s handling that the 5.7s lead he’d had over Bottas at the end of lap 32 eroded to 0.8s by the conclusion of lap 46 – the lead Mercedes even going off in the runoff beyond Turn 1 at one stage. By this point Norris was just 2.2s behind Bottas’s third place, having been lapping an average of 0.055s quicker in the 15 laps since their stops.

Mercedes had a decision to make. It could order Bottas to hold station, as it initially did, or allow him past Hamilton. On lap 52, Hamilton was ordered to “invert” his position with Bottas at Turn 3, which he did – going deep and allowing his team-mate alongside and then ahead on the run to Turn 4.

Hamilton had little chance of resisting Norris in the same way the McLaren had done earlier and a lap later Norris nipped by on the inside into Turn 6, having had a look on the outside of Turn 4.

Mercedes immediately called Hamilton in for a new set of hards – with enough time in hand for a ‘free’ pitstop in front of Perez – and to make crucial wing adjustments to try and help his handling balance. The result was a string of times in the 1m08s – a bracket he hadn’t previously reached in the race to that point – over the final 16 laps, after which he finished a rather lonely fourth.

Norris pursed Bottas to the flag, the final gap between them 2.0s.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Alessio Morgese

“At some point we thought there was a chance to attack him,” said Seidl. “But then as soon as Lando got into dirty air, after Lando could save the tyres quite a bit at the beginning of the second stint, which allowed him to get close, it was simply not possible to attack. And then Valtteri was just too strong.”

Bottas came home 18s adrift of Verstappen. The runaway leader had pulled a 27.1s gap by lap 60, when Red Bull called him in for a “prudent” extra stop – according to team boss Christian Horner – still haunted by the Baku blowouts.

Red Bull actually reported a small cut to Verstappen’s previous set of hards that “wasn't significant” but “enough to catch your attention”, again per Horner. Verstappen duly used the fresh hards he was given to put the fastest lap accolade he’d already been holding out of sight to the rest – his 1m06.200s was 1.6s clear of Sainz’s next best effort and just 0.6s outside the lap record.

“I was not sure if they were going to box me for that fastest lap, so I was actually quite happy when they called me in,” Verstappen explained. “And yeah, they found out the cut but honestly while driving I had no idea, I didn’t feel anything. But better be safe and then I could go for fastest lap – so it was perfect.”

‘Perfect’ pretty much sums up Verstappen’s race. But behind, Norris came across the line silent until declaring himself “not happy” as he waved to the crowd on the in-lap – annoyed that second place had gone begging to his pitstop time loss with the penalty. Arguably, Perez’s absence following their clash actually created the chance to take second, allied with Hamilton’s misfortune. But Norris knew McLaren was “there on merit”.

“We were fighting third and second for the whole race – even until lap 71,” he added. “The track temperature and ambient temperature were helping us a lot [the track temperature was 20C cooler at its peak than the Styrian race]. We did make a step forward and I think the car was definitely better and nicer to drive – both in qualifying and the longevity of a race.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

There’s an argument that this was McLaren’s best result since Brazil 2012 – the last time it started on the front row and still its most recent F1 victory.

The double podium of Melbourne 2014 needed Hamilton to retire and Ricciardo to be disqualified. Perhaps Monza 2020 is a real rival result given Sainz’s pace even before the safety car and red flag chaos. But over two races in Austria this year, Norris took on F1’s best two teams and firmly got among them. He was well beaten in round one but improved enough to hold his own in round two.

Without Norris's presence, pace and pressure in the second stint, Mercedes probably would have secured a 2-3, possibly even with the hobbled Hamilton still ahead

Wolff reckoned “if we hadn’t been stuck behind the McLaren at the beginning, where we lost chunks of time, we would have been racing [Verstappen]”, although this is debatable, with even Shovlin adding, “his pace was too strong, that even if Lewis had had stint one behind him, I don’t think we’d have troubled them”.

But there can be no doubting the impact Norris has had in the title race with his Austrian GP performance. Although he contributed to Perez’s absence, without his presence, pace and pressure in the second stint, Mercedes probably would have secured a 2-3, possibly even with the hobbled Hamilton still ahead.

Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren now head to Silverstone to see how much their respective Austrian form was track specific. But thanks to Norris’s brilliant disruption, Verstappen does that with a 32-point cushion over Hamilton.

“Such a great driver” indeed.

Lando Norris, McLaren, 3rd position, sprays Champagne from the podium

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images