🇦🇹 Formula 1 2021: R9 – Doubles

(c) Carlos Sainz on Twitter

The early stages of the Austrian GP saw an early incident for Esteban Ocon, which brought out a safety car, but maintained the top-two of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The latter was defending against Sergio Perez, the Red Bull driver running wide at Turn 4, one of the better overtaking opportunities.

But in defending against Perez and forcing the Mexican to tumble down the order, it meant the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was the next driver to defend from. Norris managed to keep Hamilton behind him until lap 20, even getting the commentator’s vote of confidence as they suggested that Mercedes try the undercut. Both cars have Mercedes power in their cars, and viewers have seen the difficulty the world champions have in following other cars. Simply put, the cars are designed to lead, rather than follow, so when forced to run in the wake and dirty air of another car, often struggles to make that impact. Norris got hit by the double whammy of a five-second penalty and got overtaken by Hamilton, who was only too happy to compliment the young Brit as overtook him. As he pitted, Valtteri Bottas followed him and beat him out, thanks largely to that five-second penalty. But that wasn’t the end of the story as mechanical problems meant Hamilton had to drop behind his teammate and eventually Norris as he went for second place.

But one driver went a different way entirely to most of the grid. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had free tyre choice after a Sebastian Vettel penalty. Along with Kimi Raikkonen, he chose hard tyres and managed to take them 49 laps, despite Pirelli’s guidance saying 45 laps was the upper limit for the hards. The track was cooler than it was last week and it turned out to be a brilliant strategic call from Ferrari, in a season where they haven’t been successful all the time. In Portugal, they compromised themselves on tyres, running out of softs and unsuccessfully splitting their strategy, finishing 11th and 6th, behind Lando Norris as they tried to take the fight to McLaren. But there was still one driver earning decent points there with Leclerc taking that sixth position.  At the start of the triple-header in Paul Ricard, they were destroyed on tyres, taking a double finish without any points. It looked like it could have been a return to 2020 for the Italian giants, where their heads could have dropped.

But in the second Austrian race of the season, Ferrari rallied with team orders coming in, allowing Sainz to pass Charles Leclerc late, giving the fresher-tyred Ferrari to get past one obstacle and take on Daniel Ricciardo for sixth. On top of that, penalties incurred by Sergio Perez meant that by going long, Ferrari managed to turn a 10th-place start into a fifth. The double points finish shows there is a clear demarcation between the teams at the top and the teams in the bottom half of the Constructors’ Championship, as this graph shows.

Ferrari have as many doubles as Mercedes this season - only Red Bull and McLaren have more, showing their consistency, but Ferrari are quietly building something slowly with just the one podium all season (Sainz in Monaco) showing that they don’t have to get near the front to stack a decent tally of points. Leclerc is the highest-placed driver in the championship who hasn’t yet got a podium (but he has had two pole positions and had three fourth-placed position).Alpine haven’t had both cars finish in the points, or finish and be both outside the top 10, while Aston Martin have had as many doubles where they’ve scored as they’ve had double finishes outside the top 10, although they’re also showing signs of recovery as Sebastian Vettel begins to get comfortable in the car.But looking back at Ferrari, in the Austrian double-header in 2020, they had a second and a tenth place, before a collision between the two ended their race early. In 2021, both drivers finished in the points twice, taking 28 points in total from the two races. They’re still a clear fourth on the grid, with the big two leading the way and McLaren not far behind. In fact, looking at the bigger picture, they only scored 131 points all season. Right now, after nine rounds, they already have 122 and could conceivably pass last season’s total at the British GP, after just 10 rounds after a nightmare year to forget, Ferrari are getting closer to the front.

The next round will be different at Silverstone with the first attempt at sprint qualification around the high-speed circuit. Sprint qualification isn’t likely to change too many things in the big picture, with the front runners starting at the front, just for fewer laps. But while Ferrari aren’t likely to take their first win since Singapore 2019 any time soon, the Scuderia’s outlook is a lot more positive than it was as the teams get closer to the halfway point of the season.

PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON: POST-RACE

🇦🇹 R8: Ruining Mr Saturday's graduation party

🇫🇷 R7: Staying positive

🇦🇿 R6: The award for Best Supporting Driver

🇲🇨 R5: The enjoyment of a genuine three-way battle

🇪🇸 R4: Getting out-thought if not outfought

🇵🇹 R3: Portimão and the benefits of a rule change

🇮🇹 R2: Max Verstappen and the Italian curse

🇧🇭 R1: Bahrain and comparing qualifying pace with 2020

AROUND THE 2021 SEASON

📈 Formula 2, Formula 3 and W Series: Why F1's support races are great

🏁 The pros and cons of sprint qualifying

🔮 Four odd predictions for F1 2021