Sundaram Ramaswami
Last week’s Styrian Grand Prix may not have been the most entertaining race of the season, courtesy of Red Bull’s blistering pace advantage over Mercedes. But it was an important one with regard to the championship, with Max Verstappen and Red Bull looking stronger than ever in the hybrid era. As Austria preps itself for its fourth F1 race in less than 12 months, let’s take a look at the several interesting stats and records (some unwanted ones by Mercedes) from last weekend.
Here are all the numbers from the 2021 Styrian GP –
GENERAL –
- Only the top four drivers managed to complete all 71 laps of the Styrian GP, with the rest being lapped by the race winner. In 2020, the Portuguese GP also saw only the top-4 finishing every lap of the race, while at the Spanish GP, Lewis Hamilton had lapped everyone else except his fellow podium finishers.
- There were quite a few similarities between the 2020 and 2021 Styrian GPs, best described in the image below –
RED BULL-
- Last time’s race winner, Max Verstappen took back-to-back race wins for the first time in his F1 career.
- It was also the first time the FP1 table topper went on to win the race in 2021.
- The Dutchman joins four-time world champion, Alain Prost, as the most successful driver at the Red Bull Ring with three wins. Verstappen has not taken three or more victories at any other race track. Quite befitting as the circuit belongs to Red Bull.
- Verstappen’s winning gap over Lewis Hamilton – who pitted on the penultimate lap to have a shot at the fastest lap – was 35.743s, the biggest margin since China 2016. That’s the race where Daniil Kvyat was christened “The Torpedo” by Sebastian Vettel.
- The driver who has led the most laps this season is Verstappen (332), while his title rival, Hamilton, has led less than half of that figure (122).
MERCEDES –
- At the Styrian GP, Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher’s record for the most second-place finishes in F1 – 43.
- This is Hamilton’s longest winless streak since the six races between Mexico 2017 – China 2018.
- Luck isn’t any better for Mercedes who have failed to win four races on the trot, a first in the turbo-hybrid era.
- Spielberg is by far Valtteri Bottas’ most favourite race venue as he has six podiums here.
- All of the Finn’s podium appearances in 2021 have been third-place finishes. He last won a race at last year’s Russian GP, 276 days ago.
- This was the first time a Mercedes-powered car failed to lead a lap in Austria since 2002.
- Bottas managed to stand on the podium despite taking a three-place grid penalty for dangerously spinning in the pitlane. The last driver to take a podium after copping a grid penalty was Sebastian Vettel at the 2019 German GP. He started twentieth and ended up in P2.
McLAREN –
- Lando Norris is on a golden run at present, scoring points in every race since the 2020 Emilia Romagna GP. That’s a 13-race scoring streak, McLaren’s best since Fernando Alonso scored in his first 14 races with the team in 2007.
- Since his podium in 2017, Daniel Ricciardo has finished in the points only once in his last five races in Austria.
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FERRARI –
- Both Ferraris retired from last year’s Styrian Grand Prix after a collision on the opening lap. This time, both ended in the points even though Charles Leclerc came together with Pierre Gasly after the race start.
ALPHATAURI –
- Despite Gasly’s early retirement, AlphaTauri are on a streak of their own. They’ve scored points in every race since Bahrain 2020.
ASTON MARTIN –
- Lance Stroll’s best race result in 2021 is three P8 finishes. His new teammate, Sebastian Vettel, has meanwhile taken a podium and a top-5 finish already.
WILLIAMS –
- George Russell suffered his first mechanical retirement since last year’s season opener, also in Austria.
- Williams have now gone 35 races straight without taking a point. Quite a difficult period for the team that once scored on 24 consecutive occasions between 2014 and 2015 and even holds the record for the most points in one race (66 at 2014 Abu Dhabi GP).
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