Ferrari's engine upgrade went backwards in Austria. Silverstone looms.
A deceptive qualifying masked how far Ferrari's power unit still trails, and the Red Bull Ring's long straights made the deficit impossible to hide on Sunday.
Analysis · News · Wire
Everything we'd file as soon as it's worth filing. Timestamped, sourced, and never longer than it needs to be. Click a row to read.
A deceptive qualifying masked how far Ferrari's power unit still trails, and the Red Bull Ring's long straights made the deficit impossible to hide on Sunday.
The result went to track position; the pace data belonged to someone else.
The pace evidence suggests Hamilton was on course to win anyway, but the virtual safety car turned a nail-biter into a procession.
The virtual safety car handed Hamilton a clean undercut, but the data and Mercedes' own post-race analysis suggest he was coming through anyway.
Norris stopped on track, Piastri over a second off the pace, and the stewards found tape over a mandatory safety button.
Rivals are calling it too, but new MGU-K rules and Leclerc's own Monaco history complicate the favourite tag.
Five rounds in, Ferrari sit 72 points behind Mercedes in the constructors' standings with no wins and a consistency problem that is mostly Leclerc's.