Austrian GP sprint data: McLaren face major dilemma after Max Verstappen win

Max Verstappen overcame early attacks from McLaren and Lando Norris, who looked quicker on the first laps, but Verstappen brought out the hammer and dominated the second half of the race completely unchallenged.

Verstappen took his third consecutive sprint race win in Austria. The Dutchman is unbeatable at the Red Bull Ring and even with the constant threat of Norris and McLaren in the first 5 laps, Verstappen was undeterred and managed to impose his pace and that of the RB20 in a race that was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of entertainment.

How the Austrian GP sprint unfolded

In the early stages of the race, McLaren seemed to have more pace than Verstappen. However, it was thanks to the DRS effect that both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were able to follow and even beat the Dutchman’s pace to have a chance to attack him.

Norris tried and took his chance, overtaking Verstappen with a good dive-bomb on the inside of Turn 3 after attacking with his DRS which gave him a 17 km/h advantage over the Red Bull driver but P1 lasted only one corner for him.

Despite having DRS to defend himself from Verstappen, Lando came out of Turn 3 very compromised after his overtake. Verstappen had better traction and thanks to the great aerodynamic efficiency of the RB20 on the straight, Verstappen regained the lead at Turn 4.

In this move, Norris lost P2 to his teammate and Piastri was unable to match the overwhelming pace of Verstappen who in a matter of three laps had already opened a gap sufficient to deny DRS to McLaren. And from here on, there was no more excitement than watching Verstappen being consistent and nailing his lap times lap after lap.

This, in addition to Verstappen’s great driving, was also conditioned by the RB20’s great tyre management at the Red Bull Ring. If we look at how each team degraded the medium tyre – used, by the way – Red Bull was by far the best tyre manager, while McLaren was the worst of the top four teams in this matter.

No doubt, this data makes us pessimistic about a great show on Sunday. However, McLaren now have the opportunity to change the set-up of their car to improve this problem as the parc-fermé opens again before qualifying.

It will be important that they correct this because otherwise they will have little chance in the race regardless of what happens in qualifying. But modifying the car without time to test these changes can also have serious consequences.

Given the pace of the others and the fact that Sergio Perez is not at the level he should be, with the Constructors’ World Championship in mind, perhaps a P2 and P3 on Sunday is not a bad result for McLaren given how difficult it will be to beat Verstappen. They will have to make a decision on whether to risk changing the car or stick with the current set-up.

On the other hand, it is worth commenting on the problems of Ferrari and Sergio Perez. The Italian team suffered with the cooling of their brakes and had to ask both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to lift and coast at the end of the straight to avoid overheating them.

Sainz, who was behind George Russell and just in front of Lewis Hamilton, was lucky enough to stay inside Russell’s DRS window until the final laps. This clearly helped him to maintain a steadier pace than Leclerc and hold Hamilton behind until the end.

Perez was once again at a very poor level. After being five laps inside the DRS zone of Leclerc, as soon as he lost this effect, his gap has been growing lap by lap until the final 3.9 seconds. And that, as we said, Leclerc had to do lift and coast for almost half of the race.