THE BIG PICTURE: With all the upgrades being made, despite it being more competitive, generally Mercedes still holds a solid performance advantage over Ferrari and McLaren. Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, however, is a different story. As always.

EVENT: An old fashioned F1 event. The middle of nowhere, picturesque, old style track, hardy camping fans.

TRACK: Race laps in 70 seconds always makes this track hectic.

QUALIFYING: What gets lost amongst the controversy of who won pole is the fact that Russell, despite considerable lifting and even downshifting for the yellow, still won pole. Just think of how mega that lap really was.

RACE: Pole to victory. Easy, right? Not exactly. Teams throwing various strategies and head fakes at each other kept this race anything but predictable.

START: Russell gets a perfect start and chops Leclerc to block. Despite all the movement, lead pack positions remain statis until Hamilton passes Leclerc ... on the outside.

RUSSELL: Still has a long ways to go, but if George gets back into it, it's going to be one small step after another.

ANTONELLI: Two pit stops happened a lap before a VSC. How different Kimi's race might have been if his luck was ever so slightly different.

MERCEDES: And they still get to make engine upgrades.

VERSTAPPEN: One has to wonder what Max would have done with a slightly different strategy. Can he repeat another major comeback? Never count Max out.

RED BULL: They took a huge gamble in qualifying, which nearly cost them a Q3 spot, holding back one set of tires for the race. However, they squandered that advantage by leaving Max out too long before using that extra set.

PIASTRI: Speaking of resets, this was by far Oscar's best race compared to his teammate. In fact, it might have been his best intra-team performance since before 2025 started going downhill for him.

MCLAREN: Their race pace was better than their qualifying pace.

HAMILTON: Some great 2021-style battles with his nemesis, Max Verstappen.

LECLERC: Started the weekend out well, but things started going backwards in the race.

FERRARI: Tire degradation is still an issue.

LAWSON: Another strong race for Liam, including a superb double overtake, who is really putting it together lately.

LINDBLAD: While Arvid is now learning how difficult F1 can be despite starting his rookie season out so well.

HAAS: Still getting slower.

WILLIAMS: Not worth mentioning. Oops...

AUSTIN MARTIN: It's gone beyond wretched. They are dabbling with the 107% qualifying rule. Something people thought Cadillac would run afoul of. Nothing is going to change till they come out with the (practically all) new car later in the year.

BOTTAS: One of many cars this year suffering from flaming brakes.

F2: Brit John Bennett makes a bold move on the last lap for the sprint race win. Bulgarian Nokola Tsolov continues to impress, taking the early lead from third starting spot, fell back to third again, then regained the lead and pulled away for the feature race victory.

F3: Mexican Ernesto Rivera had to try many, many times before successfully completing the winning move in the sprint race. The feature race was one of the all time greatest F3 races, as the top three constantly exchanged positions and the lead all race. Dane Noah Str∅msted finally came out on top.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Reset.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 46 -- The largest deficit Charles has had against any of his teammates since entering F1.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The Austrian GP has been won only once by a local driver -- Niki Lauda in 1985 with a McLaren-TAG at the Österreichring (now Red Bull Ring). Jochen Rindt did win the 1965 Austrian GP with a Ferrari at the Zeltweg Airfield course, but it was not part of the World Championship that year. Those are the only two Austrian drivers to win the world championship. Rindt, posthumously, in 1970, and Lauda three times in 1975, 1977, and 1984.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND:From @FormulaDirecta:

Checo Pérez: "Put the cooling vest on me? I'm MEXICAN"

"It makes me LAUGH that all the Europeans are worried about this level of heat."

"For me it's pretty normal, you know?"

#F1 #AustrianGP

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: When informed there's a yellow flag out for Sainz's stationary car, Max Verstappen said, "That means I can floor it, right? I'm just kidding."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Kimi Antonelli on his two brief offs early in the race, "I got a bit too excited at the start!"

SCHEDULE: To Silverstone, where they are expecting a mind-blowing record weekend crowd of half a million. Imagine the reaction if there's another all British podium.

Copyright © 2026 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.