Austrian Adventure: Norris Triumph & Verstappen’s Horror Lap

Norris dominates, Verstappen DNFs, and rookies clash! Get the full Austrian GP recap—no tech talk, just drama, chaos, and tea from Trackside Tea.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey. Hey. And welcome back to Trackside Tea where we skip the data but never miss the drama. I'm Rebecca. And today, we're heading straight into the chaos of the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Think pole to win, rookie collisions, team brawls, and maybe even a little redemption story? Let's go.

Carlos chaos.

Okay. So let's start at the beginning of the race.

The racing team's pit crew have left them all sat on the grid to get going for the formation lap. Flags blown and off they go, except poor Carlos Sainz. He couldn't get the car to move. He just stayed there. The mechanics (*marshalls) ran to his aid.

They were shooed off as they weren't allowed to even touch the car until they had permission from the FIA. Permission came and they rushed on again to try and push start him. Well, that's what it looked like anyway. By this time the rest of the pack were over halfway around the track already. Next thing we saw was Carlos's car off and running down the track.

We have to admit it seemed very much a Sonny Hayes move to start with. Those of you who have watched the film will get that reference. Those of you who have not, I don't want to give too many spoilers.

Because of this, an aborted start was called, which meant all the pit crew having to run back to the cars to cover the tyres and the drivers and cooling systems down.

Those poor folks. Some of them have full race suits on as well. I do not envy them in that heat at all.

Carlos drove into the pits instead of the back of the grid. We assumed because the the problem that had happened maybe he had to start there instead. When he stopped he said "I feel like the brakes are still on" and poof they went up in flames.

The crew were on it instantly with coolant and fire extinguishers, but it just seemed to be a battle they weren't winning because it looked like from our perspective that every time they put it out, it started again. Eventually, they pulled him back into the garage, and the call was made to end his race there and then, a DNS, did not start. Poor Carlos.

They panned to James Vowles, the team principal, and he had his head in his hands.

Bless him. But I will skip a little bit ahead in the race as that wasn't the only issue for the poor Williams team. Alex Albon was out by lap 13. He came to the pits and then his car was retired. So both cars out for Williams.

That's not the only chaos in the race though with only 16 cars actually finishing, but we'll come to that in a bit.

Norris storms home.

Lando Norris. What a race. I said George was cool, calm, and collected last race, well Lando had it in the bag this week.

From pole all the way to the checkered flag, his third win of the season was total dominance even with fending off his teammate Oscar Piastri. To be fair, it was obvious Lando was up for it this weekend as in practice he topped the two he was in. They had a newbie driver for P1 in his car. So he didn't do P1. He did P2 and P3 though.

Then he topped qualifying one and two, so it would have been a cruel twist of fate, which would have caused him not to get pole in Q3. But not only did he get it, he got it with style and the biggest margin of the season so far. 0.521 seconds ahead of second place. That's unheard of, particularly on this track. It's such a short track. You would normally do I think it's 0.1. I don't think it's anything more than that. That it's 0.5. That's just insane. And I know I don't normally do, stats on here, but that's insane.

McLaren as a team had an epic race taking a one two finish and proving once again that they had the pace and the strength this season. And on top of that, the FIA president's medal was given to him by Bernie Ecclestone. Google Bernie Ecclestone if you don't know who he is. Bernie had to get to him to step down off the podium as he couldn't quite reach Lando to put it over his head, which was quite funny. Bless him. Bernie's not very tall.

This was definitely the other end of the scale for Lando to his last race in Canada, having crashed out so close to the end.

Piastri pressure.

Now Oscar is the current leader in the championship, so he wasn't going to let Lando off so easy. Starting in third at lights out, he bombed it past Charles Leclerc to be right up behind Lando right away. And then he was right on his tail for pretty much the whole race. And to be honest, we thought they might have taken each other out a few times, but they played safe ish. Well, except when Oscar's wheels locked, he could have easily lost control. But he pulled it back, thankfully. Oscar did take the lead at one point, but that was only when Lando pitted, and then they swapped a game when Oscar pitted.

The Inter McLaren tension is totally real, but Oscar still held on to second, leaving the team with an epic double podium and a continued mass of headlines about their rivalry.

Verstappen vanished.

Meanwhile, just lap one, Max Verstappen had his day end shockingly early after contact with rookie Kimi Antonelli, and both of them were spinning out. Luckily nothing too damaging to themselves or the cars with neither of them hitting a wall. Max didn't even make it as far as the stand that was packed with his orange army fans, which was a bit sad.

He seemed quite understanding of Kimi though. He seems to have taken the rookies under his wing this season. I'm not sure he would have been so calm about it if it had been Kimi's Mercedes teammate, George Russell. This was Red Bull's worst weekend in ages, and it was Max's first DNF since Australia 2024.

Just while I'm talking about Max, his message over the radio, although swearing at the idiots, was still far more controlled than normal. One line. That's it. No torrent of abuse. Not really the Max we're used to.

Has he resigned himself to the fact that he doesn't stand a chance of winning the championship this year, so he's just taking each race in his stride now.

Or are the rumors about him getting out of his contract and going to Mercedes true? And when he realized it was a Mercedes, he didn't want to rock the boat? It has been confirmed, I believe, that Toto has had talks. Maybe Max will soon be jumping Red Bull's ship before it goes down too far. What do you think?

Rookie drama and penalties.

Having just said about Kimi Antonelli, still just 18, sliding into Verstappen in turn three, earning a three place grid penalty for Silverstone next weekend and two points on his license. He admitted it straight away that it was his fault though, so well done him for owning it.

Then there was Yuki Tsunoda, himself not a rookie, although sometimes I bet it feels a bit like in that cursed second Red Bull car. He ends up clashing with Colapinto, who is a rookie, picking up a ten second penalty and more license points.

Definitely not Red Bull's weekend adding that to Max's DNF.

And remember Liam Lawson who started out in that car of Yuki's? Having been demoted, moved, swapped out, whatever words you want to use, to racing bulls, he managed to score his first career best with sixth place.

And to be fair, I have to also give a shout out to Bortoleto who got his first points of the season coming in eighth, closely followed by his teammate Hulkenberg. So double points for the Kick Salba team this weekend. Well done, guys.

Ferrari and Mercedes sneak in.

Charles Leclerc came in P3 to help Ferrari edge ahead of Mercedes in the construction standings. Although he was a bit of a hefty way behind the leader over 19 seconds, which seems a bit crazy. Lewis Hamilton had P4, so his points also helped, and George Russell grabbed P5.

Championship shake up.

Championship update time. Piastri still leads, but Norris is now only 15 points back. And Verstappen, a painful DNF, has meant that George Russell is just 9 points behind him, and the gap between him and Lando Norris is getting bigger and bigger.

Construction wise, McLaren are leaving Ferrari in their dust with being 207 points ahead, and Mercedes only 1 point behind Ferrari.

There is definitely a battle for second place going on now.

Special mentions.

Well, I have not mentioned him so far, so I need to pop him in here in special mentions. Fernando Alonso. Got into points a game. That's three races in a row now. Just epicness. He was seen giving Bortoleto a hug after the race. Alonso is his mentor slash manager. And they had had a little bit of a battle for seventh place. Alonso winning, of course, but he was obviously proud of Bortoleto for his hard work and resilience at getting eighth place.

And just one celebrity shout out, he was seen in the Racing Bulls garage was Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool football team's former manager. My mother in law's a fan, so she loved the fact that he was there.

Virtual safety team.

Right. Your quick virtual safety team moment,

1. One word vibe. Domination. Definitely domination this week.

2. top moment. Norris pulling off a flawless pole to win weekend. He just he just wiped the floor with everybody. Definitely that. Definitely that.

And 3.Now I want to hear from you. Were you cheering for Norris? Shocked by Verstappen's crash or curious about the rookie repercussions? Hit me up at @tracksideteawithrebecca on insta or @tracksidetea on youtube.

So that's a wrap from Austria.

McLaren at their best, Red BUll in ruins, rookie mistakes, and a tech free tour through the twists.

If you love the chaos, please subscribe, share, and drop us your wildcard take on this weekend's mayhem.

Next stop is Silverstone, and that's my home race. And I'm heading there this time. Never been before, so I'm really looking forward to it.

So watch this space or you won't be because it's a podcast. So listen for this space. And then also check out my instagram because I'm planning on putting lots of stuff on there. If you're heading there too, have a great time. See you trackside.

I'm Rebecca and this is trackside tea. No telemetry, just tea. Cheers.