Formula 1 Austrian GP
Was McLaren's Austria dominance a sign that F1 2025 is already over?
How worrying should McLaren's Austria dominance be for the remainder of the 2025 F1 season, and does any other team have any chance of catching?
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Jun 30, 2025, 4:03 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Lando Norris' and Oscar Piastri's Austrian waltz flattened any hope that McLaren could still be caught in the 2025 F1 championship, but the result flattered its actual dominance and doesn't rule out further race-by-race challengers.
Red Bull was particularly despondent after being thumped at its home race, figuratively in terms of pace and quite literally as Kimi Antonelli torpedoed an unlucky Max Verstappen on lap 1.
A stoic Verstappen soon moved on and tuned into the broadcast of the Spa 24 Hours to see his nascent GT3 team win its class. But it prompted team principal Christian Horner to use some rather colourful imagery as he appraised McLaren's advantage with a mixture of admiration, envy and astonishment.
On Piastri's ability to remain glued to Norris despite the dirty air, Horner said: "He's basically making love to his f***ing exhaust pipe for lap after lap after lap, and the tyres are not dying. ... I can't see any other car that would be able to follow that closely and not ruin the front tyres or the rear tyres. I don't really understand.”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images
The best car got better
There's no doubt that McLaren was supremely impressive. It brought its latest batch of upgrades to the Red Bull Ring, with an aerodynamical update to its front suspension and both its front and rear corners, making the 2025 car more efficient and, importantly, offering a more significant improvement than the new sculpted edge wing curls seen on the Red Bull.
A lot of teams would have turned it into a boring race, so kudos to McLaren for letting its two drivers race, despite Canada's events.
Over such a short 64-second lap, Norris' half-second qualifying gap to Leclerc was enormous, and on Sunday he and Piastri simply tipped their hats at the Ferrari driver and said farewell, Norris gapping the Monegasque by 20 seconds.
But we've been here before. Yes, the championship is over if you're not driving a papaya car, but in the same way that questions were prematurely asked whether McLaren was starting to get caught after a podium-less weekend in Canada, we probably shouldn't overreact after a return of papaya dominance in Austria.
Especially as the track was always going to be a strong circuit for the MCL39 with its favoured long corners across the second half of the 4km loop, which doll out real punishment to Pirelli's tyres that was exacerbated by the heat.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
The biggest unknown, of course, is exactly how far off Verstappen would have finished at his historically successful Red Bull Ring with a clean weekend. Having qualified out of position due to yellow flags in Q3, the four-time champion didn't even complete a single racing lap on Sunday. But in the Spielberg paddock, the consensus was that he would have likely taken the fight to Leclerc for third in both qualifying and the race.
Combined with Yuki Tsunoda's worrying collapse and Mercedes' well-documented struggles at swelteringly hot races, that left the onus on Ferrari to do the chasing, which Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton simply weren't equipped for.
Even with a second lap for Verstappen, a faultless Norris' pole gap was likely going to be sizeable, but in race trim this wasn't even McLaren's most dominant race of the season. We've been here before, in Miami when McLaren mauled the competition.
Qualifying errors by both papaya drivers left the door open for Verstappen to take pole, but then, both Piastri and Norris dropped Verstappen like a stone and the Australian won the race by 37 seconds over McLaren's nearest challenger Russell, and 40 seconds on the Dutchman.
Crucially, this was a straight street fight between all the heavy hitters, which was not the case in Spielberg.
McLaren's best qualifying and race result compared to its nearest rivals, bold indicates a deficit.
McLaren vs rivals Qualifying Gap Race Gap Australia +0.012s +0.895s China +0.085s +11.097s Japan -0.012s -1.423s Bahrain +0.334s +15.499s Saudi +0.113s +2.843s Miami -0.065s +37.644s Imola +0.034s -6.109s Monaco +0.109s +3.131s Spain +0.302s +10.455s Canada -0.221s -2.109s Austria +0.521s +19.820s
Silver linings for race-by-race battles
A look at the gaps between McLaren and its nearest challengers over the first 10 race weekends doesn't take into account late safety cars and other factors, but it still underlines a trend, i.e. Andrea Stella's apples and pears theory (or apples and oranges if you're an English speaker).
Austria belonged to the apple category along with Miami, Bahrain and China, while McLaren has come under more pressure at races with lots of shorter high-speed direction changes where it couldn't deploy its warm weather tyre management prowess to the same extent.
Looking at the remainder of the pre-summer break campaign, there are no prizes for guessing who's the favourite on the twisty Hungaroring, which became easy prey for McLaren in 2024.
Silverstone might throw up a different picture, however, especially if the colder and changeable weather that is being predicted persists. And Spa is also a more balanced circuit that should benefit Red Bull's aero efficiency and can throw up surprise results, as we saw last year. Ahead of both races, Mercedes will no doubt be doing a rain dance in an attempt to improve its chances.
Yes, the constructors' title may be over in 2025 already, especially now the top teams are winding down development to focus on next year's regulations. This doesn't mean every race will be like Austria, however. Wishful thinking? Only the stopwatch will have the final word.
Photos from Austrian GP - Race
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Sunday
Formula 1
67
Read Also:
Formula 1The winners and losers from F1's 2025 Austrian Grand Prix
Formula 1F1 Austrian GP: Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri in dominant McLaren 1-2
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Haas founder to take on famed Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb in F1 car
Next article Carlos Sainz on "disastrous weekend" for Williams as team searches for answers
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Filip Cleeren
Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
24 min
Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP
Carlos Sainz: "Difficult to be convinced" that F1 2026 can finish in the Middle East
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Carlos Sainz: "Difficult to be convinced" that F1 2026 can finish in the Middle East
Latest news
Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
24 min
Kimi Antonelli ready to "finish the job" as first F1 title chance beckons at US GP
How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
37 min
How to watch NASCAR at Talladega II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Talladega II
49 min
Peterson Racing addresses online abuse after parting ways with Austin Green
'Lines were crossed' – Franco Colapinto speaks out after online abuse targeting Alpine F1 staff
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
'Lines were crossed' – Franco Colapinto speaks out after online abuse targeting Alpine F1 staff
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe