THE PAPAYA ROCKETS!

 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2025

photo credit: autoevolution.com

LANDO IS HERE TO WIN!!

McLaren back to the top step of the podium after an off weekend.

McLaren looked like the fastest car all weekend long and that proved to be the case even in the grand prix with them finishing 17 seconds of their next nearest rival, Ferrari. They dominated the race from start to end and never looked back. On the other hand, the inter McLaren rivalry was the one to be looked at with Oscar and Lando battling it all the way throughout the Grand Prix from the race start to chequered flag.

Oscar mounted some brilliant attacks on to Lando Norris but Lando always had an answer for them and had an upper hand on Oscar, securing him his well deserved victory which now puts him only 15 points behind his teammate and championship leader Oscar Piastri. Oscar's race was filled with challenges as it was not a straight forward fight with Lando... he had to bypass lapped cars and at one instance was pushed off by Franco Colapinto while he was lapping him, which put everyone's heart in their mouths. 

In the end, McLaren just had one weekend, Canada in which they did not have the lead pace but they are more than back and are dominating like before, extending their championship lead to 207 points!!

Heading on to Ferrari now... they arguably had one of their best race of the season with their cars finishing behind the McLaren in P3 and P4. There was not much the Ferrari could do as they were in a race of their own and even in between their own two cars they had a massive gap. So, both Charles and Lewis had a lonely race with them managing their tires and continuing on... but no driver minds that till they get a good result like this. Overall, Ferrari maximized the race as much as they could and are back again to P2 in the constructor's championship by only 1 point ahead of the Silver Arrows. 

Well Mercedes had a bad race but not too terrible with George Russell finishing P5 and had early battles with Lewis but in the end just did not have the pace to keep up with the Ferrari. He too was in a race of his own and managed it will to finish in P5 and give him some decent points and putting him only 9 points behind P3, Max Verstappen in the Driver's world championship. On the other hand, Kimi Antonelli ended his own race before it even started... Going into turn 3, Kimi locked up his rear axle, lost control and like a bowling ball went into Max Verstappen, ending his race and ruining the mood of thousands of supporters that came to support Max. In the end, well Mercedes will learn from this race and try to optimize their car better for hotter temperatures. The main reason they lacked pace is due to their inability to extract pace from the car in hotter temperatures. 

Well heading to the home team now, Red Bull... they had one of the most terrible races ever with Max not even completing one lap and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda finishing dead last of all drivers who finished the race. Max was taken out on lap one which was due to no fault of his own, he was just a passenger in that collision, which ended his race in front of Red Bull's home crowd. On the other hand, Yuki is just showing that either he might be the problem or more likely that the car is undrivable by any driver other than Max Verstappen himself. Red Bull have changed 5 drivers since Daniel Riccardo left the team and since then none of the drivers are able to perform even close to Max and yet are doing well at other teams after leaving Red Bull. Yuki was the only car to get lapped twice and finished behind Franco Colapinto who he had spun around. Currently, Yuki is behind both the VCaRB drivers in the world championship and with these results doesn't look like he is going to make inroads again. Just a terrible race for the home team and even a more terrible time with Max having talks with Mercedes to move to the team next season, which might ruin Red Bull as a whole as the whole team is built around him.

Onto the junior Red Bull team now, they had a wonderful race, just this time not for Isack but for Liam. Isack finished P12 and was a bit off the pace this season in which he is performing brilliantly. But Liam Lawson was on a whole another level this race and was the lead Red Bull driver out of the 4 this race. He started and finished P6 in the race, his highest of the season. He outqualified Max and held P6 from the likes of Fernando Alonso who has raced in F1 for two decades. He has more points than Yuki who replaced him at Red Bull which exemplifies the statement that the driver was not a problem ever, its the car...

Well let's head on to Williams now who had one of the worst races they have had all season, with Carlos Sainz first not able to get off the line and when he did and came into the pitlane, his brakes caught fire and hence he could not even start the race. On the other hand, Alex Albon was having a brilliant race, making up 5 positions on the start and moving up the field but alas his race also ended early with him having to retire, which prematurely ended Williams' race. Not a result they would have liked to have, but will look to bounce back again at their home grand prix. 

Stake F1 team are just one fire these past few races. They have outscored Red Bull in the past 3 races and look to be on incredible form after having a poor start of the season. They were at the back of the field at the start of the season but look to have gained pace out of nowhere. This week Gabriel Bortoleto was the lead Sauber driver qualifying and finishing P8 in the race, his first F1 points and more than well deserved. He drove a brilliant race from start to end and towards the end of the race was about to get P7 if he would not have got lapped by the McLaren's. He was just on fire. On the other hand, the German, Nico Hulkenberg has just found his old self again scoring points consecutively. He started P20 and somehow yet managed to finish in the points. He finished P9, just an exceptional result from him and exceptional racing to get so many overtakes and put himself up into the points.

The Haas team also had decent pace but just not enough to overtake the Sauber and looked a tad bit slower than them hence finished P10 and P11. Esteban scored the points for Haas and his teammate was just behind him after starting P17 and P15 respectively. 

The Aston Martin team are an outlier, with their two drivers never performing together at the same race. At the start of the season, Stroll was scoring the points for the team and now Stroll has lost pace. Now Fernando Alonso, who was having his unluckiest season ever is now scoring points, with him finishing P7 in the race. He scored decent points for the team. But the team as a whole are not very fast and currently are P8 in the constructor's world championship, not where they want to be, with both of the drivers at 14 points each. 

The Alpine team last in the constructor's championship failed to score any points in this race mainly due to lack of pace. Franco who was having a decent race had it ruined due to Yuki spinning him out, yet he drove well and mounted some decent challenges and got some good overtakes. Alpine need to up their performance as they are falling way behind their competition.

Overall, a pretty good race with multiple overtakes and some crazy battles. A race that was hot and eventful which again pushed forth the McLaren dominance and showed they are still the one's to beat.

Next on we head to Silverstone, the HOME of FORMULA ! It is regarded as one of the best tracks in history due to the legendary races accompanied with the legendary corners like maggots and becketts. We will be waiting to see whether McLaren can dominate again, now at their home race or can someone else have an answer to McLaren dominance... can someone like Lewis Hamilton who has never finished below P3 in Silverstone since 2014 win here now with his new team, Ferrari. Only time will tell...