2025 Austrian GP preview: Lando Norris’ response to Oscar Piastri clash, Mercedes hope to build on first win of the season, Max Verstappen looks to avoid race ban, and more burning questions
After another short break, F1 returns to Europe this weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, June 29.
Every F1 fan will be waiting to see how McLaren’s Lando Norris responds to his Canada collision with team-mate Oscar Piastri, whether Mercedes can build on their first win of the season, and if Max Verstappen can again avoid a race ban.
Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles considers five burning questions in the build-up to the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix.
How will Lando Norris respond to his Canada crash with Oscar Piastri?
Austria is a huge weekend for Lando Norris’ championship hopes.
At the last round in Canada, McLaren struggled to tame their MCL39 car and failed to finish on the podium for the first time in 2025.
With Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli not far ahead in P3, McLaren drivers Norris and Piastri got tangled in a battle on Lap 66, one that resulted in contact after the former made an ill-judged move that ended his race.
However, Piastri still managed to finish P4.
Norris immediately took full responsibility for the incident, saying over the radio to engineer Will Joseph: “Yep, I'm sorry. It's all my bad, all my fault. Unlucky, sorry. Stupid from me.”
It was important that Norris did not play the blame game in order to maintain harmony within McLaren, and destabilise their bid to retain the Constructors’ title for the first time since 1991.
But for his individual title hopes, Canada was hugely damaging.
After missing out on 10 points thanks to his retirement, he goes to Austria’s Red Bull Ring 22 points off Drivers’ championship leader Piastri, with Max Verstappen now only 21 points behind him in P3.
Interestingly, Norris is set to sit out the weekend’s first practice session, as McLaren give a run-out to Irish prodigy Alexander Dunne.
The 19-year-old is currently leading the F2 championship and will be the first Irishman to drive in F1 in 22 years.
But once the Grand Prix gets underway, Norris will still have full freedom to battle it out again with his team-mate, as McLaren show no signs of wavering from their ‘Papaya Rules’ of racing.
Team Principal Andrea Stella said post-Canada: “We want to give Lando and Oscar opportunities to race and opportunities to be at the end of the season in the position that they deserve to be in based on their merit.”
“I don't foresee that episode [in Canada] will change our approach from this point of view. If anything, it will reinforce and it will strengthen that the principles we have require more caution by our drivers.”
Can Mercedes build on their 1-3 finish in Montreal?
After taking Pole Position in qualifying, Mercedes’ George Russell pulled off a commanding drive to win in Montreal, while team-mate Antonelli made history with his P3 finish.
The 18-year-old became the third-youngest driver ever to finish on the podium, behind only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.
Much like he repeated his 2024 pole heroics in Canada in the last round, Mercedes fans will be hoping Russell finds himself on the top step in Austria as he did last year, when he took advantage of contact between leaders Verstappen and Norris.
There is more room for encouragement when you consider the warm conditions in Montreal - a weakness for Mercedes since last year - with track temperatures reaching 50°C.
But the Silver Arrows have struggled for consistency this season, and as Team Principal Toto Wolff explained, Austria will be a ‘different ballgame.’
At the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, smoother asphalt and several low-speed corners meant the tyres were not put under as much stress as they would at other tracks.
The Red Bull Ring is very much a ‘high energy’ circuit in comparison, with average speeds exceeding 246km/h.
This has led to Wolff admitting in his preview for Mercedes’ website that ‘our rivals will likely be much more competitive in Austria this weekend.’
The Mercedes boss said: “Building on the momentum from Canada is therefore our focus.
“The track in Spielberg will be a good test of our recent updates and provide another reference point for our progress.
“There is still a long way to go this season. We will look to maximise our points scoring and hopefully be able to challenge for the podium once again."
Can Max Verstappen stay out of trouble again this weekend?
Having got through Canada without any incidents (just), Verstappen has to do the same again in Austria to avoid an immediate race ban.
After colliding with George Russell in Barcelona, the Dutchman received three penalty points on his FIA Super Licence, taking his total across the last 12 months to 11.
12 penalty points within a year is enough for a one-race suspension, with Verstappen’s first points of his current monitoring period coming at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix after he caused the collision with Norris.
The two points he received for that incident will be removed upon clean completion of this weekend’s race, so while he will still have nine points on his licence, Verstappen will have a little more breathing room until more points get removed in October.
The fact that he has made it to Austria will be a great relief to Red Bull at their home Grand Prix, with advisor Helmut Marko having labelled the prospect of Verstappen missing the race start a ‘disaster.’
Since the incident in Spain, Verstappen has closed the gap slightly on championship leader Piastri to 43 points, after he finished P2 in Montreal.
The four-time world champion also has a stellar record at the Red Bull Ring; nobody in F1’s history has as many wins in Austria as the Dutchman (five).
Before the incident with Norris at last year’s event, Verstappen had dominated the weekend, taking the Sprint Pole, the Sprint win, and pole position for the Grand Prix proper.
While the Dutchman has since struggled to replicate such commanding form, the Austrian track has always suited Red Bull cars across different F1 eras.
And even though he still has to walk a tightrope to avoid a race ban, it would not come as a surprise to see Verstappen take to the top step once again.
How is the midfield battle shaping up?
While Williams are still firmly in the ‘best of the rest’ position of P5 in the Constructors’, sitting 27 points ahead of the competition, their flying start to the 2025 season has hit a snag in recent weeks.
In the last three races, the Grove team have only collected four points, three of which came at Monaco after a P9 and P10 finish for Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, respectively.
Then in Spain, with track characteristics a limiting factor, Williams went point-less for just the second time in 2025.
There was no reason not to believe they would bounce back in Montreal, but traffic for Sainz in qualifying, and a tough race start followed by an engine failure for Albon, combined to ensure Williams took home just one single point.
Sainz recovered brilliantly from P17 to P10 thanks to a well-executed strategy, impressive pace, and Norris’ retirement, but rued the fact that Williams had failed to show their ‘maximum potential.’
Haas and Racing Bulls are currently tied on 28 points in P6 in the Constructors’ Championship, but the most exciting development to emerge in recent rounds has been the form of Aston Martin and Sauber.
After his worst-ever start to an F1 season and no points in eight races, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has now scored points in two consecutive races - P9 in Spain and a remarkable P7 drive in Canada.
It could be argued that since their Imola upgrade, and with Alonso in the car, Aston Martin have been the fifth fastest team on the grid - they currently sit P8 with 22 points.
Just behind them is Sauber, who, before Nico Hulkenberg’s heroic P5 finish at Barcelona, followed by a P8 at Montreal, had been dead last in the standings.
Hulkbenberg has praised upgrades brought in at Barcelona as a ‘clear step forward,’ explaining the car has been more consistent, balanced and predictable in the last two races.
The uptick in form should also provide encouragement for Audi, who take over the team led by former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto in 2026.
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Has Franco Colapinto done enough to stay at Alpine?
Ever since Franco Colapinto’s first race for Alpine at Imola, it has been difficult to get a read on his situation at the French team.
In their press release announcing his swap with Jack Doohan, Alpine effectively said Colapinto had five races to impress, and a review after this weekend’s race in Austria would decide whether he would stay on for the remainder of the season.
But then, Alpine’s Executive Advisor and current de facto Team Principal Flavio Briatore quickly rubbished the idea of a five-race trial.
Contradicting his own statement in the aforementioned press release, Briatore said there was ‘no set limit’ on the number of races for Colapinto, but admitted to being ‘unhappy’ with the Argentine’s form after the Spanish Grand Prix.
At Montreal, when asked about ‘rumours’ around Colapinto’s future and whether he is still under evaluation, Briatore hit back at a journalist from the La Voz del Interior newspaper.
“I don’t think there are any rumours. The team is fine with Franco [Colapinto] and that’s it,” Briatore said.
“Franco is part of the team, I don’t know what rumours they are talking about.
“The problem is that the press publishes a lot of rubbish. It’s your fault, not ours. All these things come from Argentina and the people there. You should blame yourselves.”
Whether or not Alpine plan to make any changes after Austria, Colapinto’s chances of staying with the Enstone-based team were certainly not hurt by his performance in Montreal.
After outqualifying team-mate Pierre Gasly for the first time since his F1 return, the 22-year-old lined up in P10 for Sunday’s race, but lost out at the start to Hülkenberg and further still when he hit traffic after his first pit stop.
Although disappointed with his eventual P13 finish, Colapinto felt that the weekend had been his strongest since his return to F1 in Italy, and said he is starting to better understand his A525 car.
Briatore also praised the young Argentine while revealing some of the changes Alpine have made to better accommodate him.
“The engineers are very happy and they spent a lot of time in England with a lot of hours in the simulator, we changed the seat, we changed the brake pedals, we changed a lot, and today, finally, we have the results.”
While it appears Colapinto should not have to worry too much about his future with Alpine, an even stronger performance at Austria would surely go a long way to quell any fears of another driver change.
But as we should all be aware of by now, anything can happen in F1 - test and reserve driver Paul Aron, and free agents Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez remain as options to take Colapinto’s seat should Alpine decide they have seen enough.
The 2025 Austrian Grand Prix weekend takes place on Jun 27-29, with fans being able to catch all the action live on Sky Sports F1.
The race itself gets underway on Sunday at 2pm UK time.
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