The 2021 Austrian Grand Prix is going up and down

At the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix, who was going up and down the mountain? All of this is disclosed farther down. So maybe Max Verstappen did tour his way to victory – a grand prix with a rock band as the opening act was always going to be unique.

The 2021 Austrian Grand Prix is going up and down

Much was up and down at this year’s Austrian Grand Prix, with Norris shoving Perez, Perez shoving Leclerc, Dutch fans burning up 75% of the world’s orange flare supply, and Jean Todt appearing incredibly serious during a Final Countdown-esque Austrian national anthem.As George Russell and Fernando Alonso battled it out at the Red Bull Ring, there were overtones of Dijon ’79 (sacrilege to say, I know), the old and new guard going at it for one single, solitary point. The current Williams has no business fighting the Alpine, but Russell’s immense talent is carrying the FW43B to places it shouldn’t be, even if he does lose. In terms of F1 pre-race entertainment, we’ve never seen anything quite like it: the Austrian national anthem performed in the style of 1980s metal. In the video above, Lando Norris is seen struggling not to chuckle.

It gets even better when we observe F1 heavyweights Domenicali, Todt, and Brawn all keeping a respectful distance from the action. Beautiful. On the subject of everyone’s new favorite Lando (and this month’s cover hero), the young swashbuckler swashbuckled his way to the top with the kind of drive that warms even the coldest fan’s heart. It’s really nice. Lewis Hamilton even called in to praise Norris’ driving on the team radio, as if he were contacting a BBC 5Live phone-in. Perhaps he’s only trying to fit in with the youngsters. Max Verstappen’s orange fans descended in their hordes with a full capacity audience at a GP for the first time since Covid-19 struck. The whirling sea of orange smoke from flares seemed like something out of Gladiator, with the Dutch army poised to attack an unsuspecting little country. In Free Practice, Crofty and Di Resta’s commentary veered from the mundane to the odd, ostensibly in an attempt to elicit some debate. When considering potential driver changes, Di Resta claimed that the public may not think Russell is as good as Norris and that he isn’t ready to race for Mercedes because he drives for Williams (i.e. almost the slowest team). Even after he took the lead in Sakhir the previous year. Excuse me, but what are you talking about?! Who in their right mind believes this?!

Overall, many of the penalties seemed meaningless, deterring any aggressive racing. Unless you’re truly Jerezing someone as Schumacher and Villeneuve did in 1997, F1 should probably just let racers race (cringey phrase I know). Is the Iceman starting to lose his cool? After rear-ending his team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi in Portugal a few races ago, Kimi Räikkönen took out former team-mate and famous bee-keeper Sebastian Vettel in a furious struggle for 12th on the final lap in Austria. Little Ant was also up to no good, slamming into a helpless Esteban Ocon on the first lap and destroying the Alpine’s suspension. If you can’t defeat them, crash them, the Alfas reasoned. Do we believe it’s all over now? It might be right now. With Red Bull’s performance seemingly allowing Verstappen to canter away over the Styrian mountains, and Mercedes possibly deciding it’s not worth it, a season that was shaping up to be a classic is beginning to look very boring.