In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton admitted frustration got the better of him in the Austrian Grand Prix.
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In brief
Austrian GP was confusing for Hamilton
Hamilton endured a disappointing race at the Red Bull Ring, suffering a handling imbalance in the early laps and becoming the first of many drivers to collect a penalty for exceeding track limits. He fell to seventh at the flag, which became after he received another penalty.
He spent several laps reporting other drivers for their track limits violations. Afterwards Hamilton admitted it hadn’t been one of his best performances.
“There are days when I can say I’m truly proud of myself and days like today when frustration takes over,” he said in a post on social media. “In a race it can feel like you’re hanging off a cliff and losing the strength to hold on.
“It’s confusing for us to have such strong performances one day and then be nowhere the next. But when you really care about what you’re doing you brush it off and keep fighting!”
F2 team “forget to serve penalty”
Kush Maini has been given a five-place grid drop for the next race he competes in after failing to serve a penalty during the Formula 2 feature race in Austria.The Campos Racing driver was given a five-second time penalty for multiple track limit violations during the race. That should have been carried out during his pit stop, but the stewards noted “the team simply forgot to serve the penalty” when Maini came in to pit immediately ahead of his team mate Ralph Boschung.
As Maini later retired from the race the penalty could not be added to his race time. The stewards have therefore given him a grid drop which he is expected to be served this weekend at Silverstone.
Floersch loses first F3 points
Sophia Floersch has lost her first points finish of the season, and the first for a female driver in the FIA F3 series, after being disqualified from the Formula 3 feature race in Austria.
The PHM driver crossed the finishing line in ninth, but on inspection her car was found in breach of article 4.3.13 of the technical regulations as its front wing endplates were less than 70mm above the reference plane.
Montoya penalised for Colapinto clash
Sebastian Montoya was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Franco Colapinto on the final lap of the feature race. The two drivers went side-by-side into turn six, Montoya on the outside, when their front wheels touched. Both went off the track and dropped down the order.
The stewards deemed the Red Bull junior “wholly responsible” for the collision and added two penalty points to his licence. That dropped Montoya from 10th to 20th in the final classification. His and Floersch’s penalties elevated Pepe Marti and Leonardo Fornaroli into ninth and tenth respectively.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Floersch: ‘First points for PHM from P20 makes it all the sweeter’ (Formula 3)
'We finished P9 which is insane. I love Red Bull Ring, it’s my favourite track but coming from P20, I knew that the top 15 was possible, but to actually get my first points now and also for the team is amazing. It makes me really, really proud because it was a really difficult race.'
'Today’s race has, unfortunately, been in line with our performances this weekend; we have made a step back, compared to previous races, and of course we will need to analyse this over the next few days. At the same time, our focus now goes onto the next race in Silverstone, for the final leg of this back-to-back: we are bringing an important upgrade there, which can hopefully improve our performance.'
'Today has been a very disappointing day for us, another PU failure on Nico’s car and obviously the car is not fast enough in dry conditions. We’ve got a lot of work in front of us, and we will keep on working.'
'Unfortunately, we pitted Nyck on lap 12, the lap before the Safety Car was deployed, while others benefitted from the opportunity and were able jump him, which was very unlucky.'
Mike Krack: 'Today was not our strongest performance, but we still managed to score nine important points. The podium fight was out of reach, but there was the opportunity to finish higher up with both drivers. We lost some track position early on when we chose to pit and stack both cars just as the VSC was ending and that proved quite costly for both drivers.'
Charges pending against man who drove on Chicago NASCAR course: Police (Chicago Sun Times)
'How the 46-year-old was able to get access to the race course about 9pm wasn’t immediately clear, Chicago police said.'
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
What a difference a day makes #F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/xXHArI4o5p
— Chantelle-Emma Hilton (@Channerz_Maiden) July 2, 2023
There will be more time penalties applied to competitors in the Austrian GP. Thankfully not the top three. That results can be changed hours after the event's ending is disappointing. That said, I won the Belgian GP in 1994 when I was in the airport lounge in Brussels #f1
— Damon Hill (@HillF1) July 2, 2023
If @Max33Verstappen committed six track limits violations the race director missed, @Charles_Leclerc can still win this… #F1 #AustrianGP #RaceFans
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) July 2, 2023
Delighted with “P2” today, counting only legit laps 😉🤣#AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/y7scGJRhNv
— 周冠宇 | Zhou Guanyu 🇨🇳 (@ZhouGuanyu24) July 2, 2023
Can't wait to see @AlexPalou make it into @F1.
This guy is the real deal! Think McLaren have some sort of arrangement but obviously no seat available for a while – unles we can get Lando into Red Bull or Ferrari??— Tiff Needell 🏁 (@tiff_tv) July 2, 2023
Scott McLaughlin was not a fan of Benjamin Pedersen after this one.#Honda200 #IndyCar pic.twitter.com/97ybzF1pjo
— Christopher DeHarde (@CDeHarde) July 2, 2023
1998 Long Beach
Front row: B. Herta/B. Rahal
Winner: Alex Zanardi, Ganassi Honda, in a year en route to his 2nd title2023 Mid-Ohio
Front row: C. Herta/G. Rahal
Winner: Alex Palou/Ganassi Honda, in a race where he extends point lead trying for 2nd title #IndyCar #Honda200— Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) July 2, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Blame the track for F1’s track limits farce, says @T1redmonkey:
I’m all for insisting drivers stay ‘within the white lines’ however there’s clearly something seriously wrong with this track with this number of incidents. I’m sure it will be discussed by the drivers and the FIA over the next couple of weeks anyway and hopefully they’ll decide on something sensible for the next time they race here.
@T1redmonkey
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Troma, Chris Preston and Marcia Simon!
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Alain Prost passed Ayrton Senna to win the French Grand Prix
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
3rd July 2023, 0:31
After today’s creative rulemaking session by the FIA stewards, any future race under the FIA banner is basically a free for all.
True banana republic governing body stuff.
GmP (@gmp)
3rd July 2023, 5:29
If you are watching F1: why?
If you are not watching F1: why are you commenting?
Please go watch a sport you like, with clear rules with only one interpretation, fair and fast refereeing, no cheating (or when it happens, fast and swift punishment).
Let me know what sport that is. I am genuine curious.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
3rd July 2023, 9:05
Let’s turn it around.
Name one sport where the referees write a completely new rule after the contest has concluded and retroactively apply it to said contest to determine a new outcome.
Sham (@sham)
3rd July 2023, 9:40
They didn’t change any rules, they were merely asked to apply them to everyone who had broken them.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
3rd July 2023, 10:31
Please cite the specific rule that allows for the stewards inventing a penalty ‘reset’ out of whole cloth.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd July 2023, 10:33
To be fair, they did come up with a completely new penalty system to apply post-race because otherwise the amount of time penalised would have become even more ridiculous. If I’ve understood it correctly, they applied the following:
– First 3 infringements were “allowed”
– 4th infringement gave a 5s penalty
– 5th infringement gave increased this to a 10s penalty
– Infringement count reset to zero
The final point there is the new part, meaning the 6th, 7th and 8th infringements were ignored, and another penalty was only issued on the 9th and/or 10th. AFAIK this has never been the case before, and was done purely to “save face”.
MichaelN
3rd July 2023, 9:14
It’s a fair point though, this business of resetting penalties is completely made up. There are heavier sanctions listed in the regulations, that come with bigger time penalties if applied after the race is over. Why not use those?
Furthermore, the stewards are authorised by the Code to disqualify drivers who appear to be lacking control. If there were indeed about 1200 violations, that becomes something they could have considered too.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd July 2023, 10:44
Agreed. If a driver is repeatedly exceeding the limits, they are not in control of their car and a heavier penalty, even a DSQ, was in order.
That said, I think something needs to be done about qually, too. The race would probably have been a lot tidier if the stewards had put their foot down on track limits in qualifying on Friday, starting to issue grid penalties for excessive violations or something (also within their power).
I was also thinking of how to deal with this on the track. Gravel traps and grass are not ideal due to motorcycle racing. But what about a simple rumble strip placed such that the drivers would touch it just as they leave track limits? A little “haptic feedback”, as it were, to make it easier for the drivers to tell where the limits were (given they can’t actually see the corners of the car).
Part of me also thinks the rules should be changed to make it so that you must keep the entire car within the track limits, possibly moving the limits to the outside of the kerb, as this would be both easier to police and easier to for the drivers to follow.
All that being said, I don’t really have much sympathy for the drivers caught out, and that includes Hamilton even though I’m a fan of his. Don’t want the penalties? Stay within the lines! Every driver this weekend has made F1 look silly, and the officials have compounded that by being so slow to make decisions.
GeeMac (@geemac)
3rd July 2023, 9:20
@gmp Rugby Union and Cricket spring to mind.
MCG (@malrg)
3rd July 2023, 0:58
It amazes me how much this guy moans about the car, other Teams having an advantage, wants a ban on starting development for next year prior to a set date ETC, ETC.
You never heard any of this when he had the best car, then it was all good, and he was the best because he was winning.
Most of the cars on the grid are worse than the Merc, do you hear them all moaning?
When Merc was dominant and starting development on next season when ever they felt like it, was he suggesting at limitation on that?
Entitled!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd July 2023, 2:17
Hamilton complained the car was particularly slow and can’t blame him: this race it was red bull >> ferrari > mclaren\merc\aston, red bull was a rocket ship, but even ferrari gave basically no chance to defend to the other cars, and norris and hamilton were very close for a long time, whether norris was ahead or hamilton, until hamilton had to serve his penalty; later on alonso seemed to be slightly faster than hamilton, so all 3 cars looked similar.
Craig
3rd July 2023, 15:16
Hamilton had an issue with his brake setup as well which wouldn’t have improved his mood much either.
S
3rd July 2023, 2:41
CotD comes to the popular, though entirely incorrect, conclusion that when the drivers are repeatedly disobeying the rules, there must be something wrong with something other than the drivers.
Blame the track or the FIA or whatever if you feel you must – but they aren’t the ones holding the steering wheels or pushing the pedals. The rules are clear and known to all competitors prior to them even arriving at the circuit.
Decades prior.
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
3rd July 2023, 20:33
The reason it is a popular opinion is the same reason that car racing is more popular with spectators than autotest (or autocross in the States). Funny enough, people are more interested in watching drivers and cars push to limits with consequences than push to limits against painted lines and cones in car parks. If what you want to see is the world’s best drivers and fastest cars compete in high-speed autotest, then the 1,200 track-limits violations are a feature and not a bug. But those who want to see a motor race would be better off with a better track.
S
4th July 2023, 10:08
Austria provided consequences – time penalties.
Interestingly enough, they are the same as the penalties applied for hitting cones in the carpark…
I don’t watch F1 to see the best drivers. They’ve just proven why – they can’t even stay on the track.
And Austria is a great track for racing and provides a respectable challenge for the driver. The only thing wrong with it here were the competitors driving on it.
But at least their incompetence provided some good entertainment.
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
4th July 2023, 22:01
Indeed, they are. Which goes to show what kind of contest this was after all… Glad you enjoyed it, though!
S
5th July 2023, 7:29
“The best drivers in the world” participating in “The pinnacle of motorsport” racked up all those completely unnecessary and easily avoidable time penalties – nobody else is responsible.
That’s what kind of contest it was.
They lowered themselves to that level. Not just on Friday and Saturday – but they kept on doing it all of Sunday too…
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd July 2023, 5:41
COTD: The general approach is indeed good, but something should be done regarding Red Bull Ring’s last two corners, as these two have been the most problematic since the current approach came for last season.
Simon
3rd July 2023, 14:29
@jerejj not in total agreement with COTD. Colour me all shades of shocked…
Sham (@sham)
3rd July 2023, 6:25
Its only a problem because the drivers chase the last tenth – you can’t blame them, but when you do that at this track you run the risk of violation and eventual penalty.
It’s up to the driver and team to weigh up the risk. You can always back off a tiny bit to be safe, whether that means safe in its literal sense or in the sense of track limits.
The drivers simply chose not to do so and made themselves look like amateurs in the process.
w0o0dy
3rd July 2023, 6:51
Hamilton had his fingers in his ears during the Austrian National Anthem, that should go down well with Toto Wolff (from Austria). It’s not hard to dislike this guy.
MadMax (@madmax)
3rd July 2023, 7:15
i guess we know you dont like him, as you post your dislike under every article. makes you quiet dislikeable also.
Sikhumbuzo Khumalo
3rd July 2023, 9:25
He has been doing that since his Mclaren days. I see you jumping on the twitter bandwagon.
Qeki (@qeki)
3rd July 2023, 7:02
Didn’t see it from the onboard but Montoya just tried to hang it outside and didn’t have the room as he was forced there. How did he get the penalty as he dropped from 4th to 10th anyway…..
Mayrton
3rd July 2023, 7:07
It’s understandable given he has always had cars that were able to win a race. To go back after 15 year to a, well let’s be honest still 2nd/3rd/4th fastest car asks a lot of his skills and kind of underlines how fortunate he has been to win so many races.
oweng (@oweng)
3rd July 2023, 9:53
How fortunate was Schumacher to win all those races in a Ferrari too right? And Verstappen now… lucky boy.
Prost and Senna winning all those races in 1988? Pure luck of the draw.
Mayrton
3rd July 2023, 11:46
I was talking about Lewis. Hard to compare with others. Different times, different situations. I think Lewis is a very good driver, 2 or 3 WDC’s worth in terms of skills. Not 7. That is luck (others not being able to challenge the Mercedes for a very long period in time).
SteveP
3rd July 2023, 7:46
A sentence that, in its incompleteness, sums up the confusion of the 1200 plus infractions and ensuing penalties.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
3rd July 2023, 9:27
I feel a little sad for Sophia Floersch following her penalty. Whilst all around her lost their heads with track limits and collisions, hers was a team mistake that robs her of her 1st points.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
3rd July 2023, 13:44
Nothing new there. Even outside of the car he is often frustrated if his (social)media is any reflection of his metal state
MadMax (@madmax)
3rd July 2023, 16:56
Which social media post are you refering to? Or making things up in your biased mind…
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
3rd July 2023, 14:20
HAM needs to retire. Whined during qualifying and whined all race long.
MadMax (@madmax)
3rd July 2023, 16:55
And you whining about him here.
Gangadhar Ambali
5th July 2023, 4:44
agreed Ham should retire before frustration takes over