F1 in Austria was half exciting and half boring - Has momentum swung towards Russell?

The idea of an intra-team battle for the title is becoming seemingly more likely as Ferrari can't get their act together while Mercedes is absolutely dominating.

The elephant in the room this weekend was the Q3 yellow flag fiasco where George Russell took pole position over Charles Leclerc after Max Verstappen pushed too hard and lost the car coming into turn 9.

Image Credits: Motorsport.com

After qualifying, Red Bull credited the cause of the crash to a rear wing active aero failure, with the crash not actually being too detrimental to Verstappen's weekend as he still qualified 5th ahead of the two McLarens and his teammate.

The start of the race was quite entertaining, with just about the entire top 8 duking it out for position like it was life or death, though I felt that was where the action haulted, as there was no action in the midfield, where Racing Bulls and its Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson clearly had the upper hand, qualifying and finsihing 9th and 10th respectively.

I was quite happy with the differences in strategies this race, with almost the entire top 8 having a different strategy, which led to the constant fighting due to differing strategies.

George Russell commandingly had control during the first stint, leading his teammate, Charles Leclerc, and Max Verstappen throughout. Yet again it was the final stint where it fell away from Russell, similarly to last week when his commanding lead fell away while on the hard tyres. What's important, however, how he managed to hold on and keep the likes of Verstappen and Antonelli behind.

Image Credits: Motorsport.com

I feel momentum is shifting towards Russell due to how strong he was this weekend, if his only weakness going into the rest of the European stint is hard tyres, then he may be the strongest in the field, and I feel he is going to be the one to watch going into Silverstone next week. The Mercedes is still the best car on the grid and I don't foresee a non Mercedes win unless Ferrari and Hamilton can really get their act together.

On the topic of Ferrari, it's becoming a theme of them introducing mid season upgrades that don't work. In 2024, their European upgrades didn't work, last year their car during the midpoint of the season was terrible, and now this year, they introduce upgrades that are supposed to turn their season around and they are basically nowhere. Hamilton doesn't get as much scrutiny due to Ferrari screwing up his strategy (of course), but Charles Leclerc was no where this weekend, going from P2 to P8 and finishing behind Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris.

Oscar Piastri was very strong this weekend, especially when his teammate was duking it out with Charles Leclerc for P8, finishing P4 and bringing himself to fourth in the championship.

It seems the championship battle is returning to Antonelli vs. Russell, a very exciting prospect, and as always, I am very excited for Silverstone next weekend.