
Monaco toy story is all good fun but keeping it clean isn't child's play
You can tell the Monaco Grand Prix is essentially a work from home situation for the drivers, the vast majority of whom live in the Mediterranean tax haven. Just look at the car park.
Whereas normally F1 stars commute in whatever company cars their teams dictate, here those who haven't walked from their nearby apartments, or cycled, have arrived in their latest and proudest boys toys.
Take Carlos Sainz Jr, who has used the occasion to show off his most valuable automotive asset, a customised limited-edition Ferrari Daytona SP3 in satin grey that's worth in the region of £2million. He may drive for Williams these days (and keep an eye on them this weekend, as they could spring a surprise), but he is clearly not about to ditch the prancing horse key fob.
Or Lando Norris, who has eschewed his equally fast McLaren road car for the latest Porsche 911 GT3 RS, with a Weissach performance package and bespoke dark green hue. Perhaps he couldn't quite stretch to, or blag, the £3m McLaren Solus GT car of which just 25 have been built, one of which painted in red-and-white Marlboro colours is sitting pride of place on the deck of a superyacht in Monaco's harbour this weekend.
That's the trouble with the principality; there's always someone with a more eye-catching accessory. And with that, George Russell can probably boast the most desirable car in the drivers' car park – his 219mph 1,049bhp Mercedes-AMG ONE hypercar is currently valued at over £4.3m.
To win in Monaco is extra special, not least because it's the oldest grand prix on the calendar and irrefutably the most glamorous. It is the ultimate test of driver precision, a place where the tiniest mistake is punished with a carbon-shattering DNF.
To win here, you don't just need a clean Sunday, you need an incident-free run up in order to perfect your set-up, find where the limit is, and put yourself in the best possible position on the starting grid.
As everyone knows, Monaco is usually an overtaking-free zone. Drivers who have excelled here before from the current crop include three-time winner Lewis Hamilton, two-time winner Max Verstappen, and last year's winner, home favourite Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc broke his curse finally, and will be hoping for luck again. He could use it, having only a single podium to show for the year so far. Sixth place in Imola was a struggle. Hamilton fared better with P4 but Ferrari are still some way off the pace of the McLaren, the Mercedes and, in Verstappen's hands, the Red Bull. 'Here, it's all about low speed,' said Leclerc, indicating the usual suspects mightn't have the same advantage at this event.
'I hope we'll discover something new about our car that we haven't seen yet.'
Yuki Tsunoda is under pressure to avoid mistakes this weekend, having utterly destroyed his RB21 in qualifying last Saturday. Five grands prix and a sprint into his Red Bull Racing career, having taken over from Liam Lawson at Suzuka onwards, the Japanese driver has only seven points to show for it. Max, who currently sits third in the championship behind Oscar Piastri and Norris, has scored 88 points in that time, along with three poles.Tsunoda's best starting position so far was his P8 in Saudi. He needs to step up.
'The constructors' is very much a long shot at the moment,' said team principal Christian Horner of the world championship. 'So all our focus is on the drivers.'
The drivers have taken a couple of hours out of their hectic schedules to relax in front of the big screen. They were treated to a private screening of the Brad Pitt-led F1: The Movie ahead of its global cinema release on June 25 and, when they emerged, they gushed about the realism of the racing scenes.
'The footage is insane. That is, for me, the best part of all of it,' judged Carlos Sainz.
The film was made on location over two seasons with Pitt and co-star Damson Idris behind the wheel themselves for some shots.
Ollie Bearman described Pitt's driving as 'impressive'.
'He was pushing the car, that's for sure. He did his homework, so it's cool. It's going to be a huge hit, and it's going to make people want to watch F1.'
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Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll were the only invitees to decline a ticket. 'I just wanted to spend more time at home,' said the notoriously showbiz-averse four-time world champion. 'It wasn't a mandatory event, and it was my private time.'
Monaco is subject to a rule change this year: All drivers must pit twice. The aim is to boost the chances of changes to the order as a result of tyre switches and differing strategies.
A minimum of three sets of Pirellis will be used on each car. 'It will definitely help, especially with strategy,' said Charles Leclerc, whose Ferrari team has come a cropper on strategy here before.
'With no clear pit-stop windows, it could present opportunities for drivers starting from further back to move up the order by making the most of running in clean air,' Pirelli stated.
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Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: Why Max Verstappen SNUBBED Lewis Hamilton's F1 film after he 'refused' to take part in nightclub scene with Brad Pitt
Max Verstappen has admitted that he would prefer to stay at home and look after his two-month old baby rather than attend black tie events after he snubbed two premieres for Lewis Hamilton 's new F1 film. 'F1', which counts seven-time world champion Hamilton as an executive producer, was released on Wednesday amid fanfare from fans and drivers. Formula One stars were given a first glimpse of the movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, in a private screening before the Monaco Grand Prix last month. The film's premiere in New York was attended by drivers Lando Norris, Ollie Bearmam, Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz. But Verstappen swerved both events and admitted he has not even watched the film yet, instead preferring to spend time looking after his newborn. The Red Bull driver welcomed his first child at the beginning of May with partner Kelly Piquet. The Dutchman, 27, told The Sun: 'Being authentic is not something I have to try and focus on. It's just who I am. 'I don't like to be on the red carpet and dress up in a suit. I don't like to interact with people that I don't really know, and have a fake smile and fake chat. It's horrible, I just don't enjoy it. 'I prefer to hang out with my friends and spend time with my little family. I also have a lot of other projects going on outside of F1. 'So any extra work like red carpets is not what I want to do. I'm at a stage of my career where I've achieved so much professionally. 'I'm just focusing outside of it now, like my big passions to make life more enjoyable and not just being performance driven.' 'With the nappies, some are more smelly than others!' The four-time world champion even declined to take part in an extra nightclub scene for the film with Brad Pitt. Other drivers took a greater interest in the movie. 'I'll just say, for the pure F1 fan, be open-minded to Hollywood films,' Williams driver Carlos Sainz said. Formula One teams were keen to help producers and granted the actors unprecedented access to their facilities. McLaren handed them access to their Woking headquarters while Williams allowed them to use their wind tunnel for four days. Silverstone was essentially rented out to film-makers for three months in summer 2023, leaving junior drivers unable to use the track. Hamilton's production company Dawn Apollo features in the opening credits and has been credited with playing a decisive role as he helped train Pitt and Idris in Formula 2 cars. Joseph Kosinski, who was behind Top Gun: Maverick, and directed the latest potential blockbuster, revealed ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix: 'Lewis was the first person I reached out to. 'I sent him an email and said, 'I want to make it as authentic as possible. Will you help me?' And luckily, Lewis said, 'Yes'. 'He was involved in all the technical details with fascinating advice. In Hungary, for instance, he said, 'If Brad's going to let someone pass during a blue flag and he wants it to be as tight as possible, he's only going to do that at turn six'. That kind of detail, I couldn't have gotten from anywhere else.'


Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Damon Hill interview: I said to Mum ‘I think it's Daddy' and she started screaming
For Damon Hill, next week's British Grand Prix at Silverstone promises to bring back special memories. It is 31 years since the silver-goateed former racer won his home Grand Prix, an achievement even his father, legendary two-time world champion Graham Hill, never managed. But it was what happened after that race that Hill is going to try to recreate next week. '1994 was the first year EJ [Eddie Jordan] got us all up on to his flatbed truck to play rock'n'roll in the paddock,' Hill recalls, smiling. 'He came over with his brother-in-law, or his cousin, Des Large – there was a whole gang of them from Ireland.' A tradition was born that day. Hill, who as a teenager had played in a punk band called Sex Hitler and the Hormones, was on guitar, fellow drivers Johnny Herbert and Perry McCarthy assisted on vocals, Jordan himself was on drums. 'I think [David] Coulthard was on triangle,' Hill says, laughing. 'I'm going to get him up on stage. We're going to try to recapture the enthusiasm of those first few years. Although without EJ there, it's all a bit more daunting!' Hill shakes his head, remembering some of the wilder antics of the irrepressible Irishman, one of F1's great characters and a man who later became his team boss. Sadly, Jordan died in March this year after a battle with prostate cancer. 'Eddie had the energy of a nuclear power station,' Hill wrote in a touching tribute in The Telegraph. 'There will never be another like him.' Hill knows more than most about loss and grief. His entire adult life has been shaped by it. The tragic death of his father on November 29, 1975, in a light aircraft he had been piloting, along with all five of his crew, happened when Damon was just 15 years old. Unsurprisingly, it left a mass of unresolved issues. When Hill won his own world title, 21 years later, in 1996, it was one of the most popular and emotional wins in F1 history. They were the first father-son world champion combination. Murray Walker, who had known Graham well during his career, famously had to stop commentating when Damon clinched the title in Japan because he had a 'lump in his throat' (listen to his commentary below). Damon Hill takes his eighth win of the season, and with it the Drivers' Championship at Suzuka. Murray Walker with commentary. Japan - 1996 #F1 — F1 History (@TodayF1History) February 6, 2024 But for Hill, his 1996 triumph did not give him the closure he thought it might. When he retired a few years later, he still had to come to terms with his grief. Years of depression and therapy followed. 'You can't bring someone back from the dead,' Hill says of what he learnt in those sessions, as he sits back on a sofa in his Farnham home. We are on a video call. 'You can't undo the experience. What you have to do is defuse it. It's like an unexploded bomb. You've got to defuse it, so it doesn't go off at times when you're under stress. Because it will. 'I still get massive anxiety. If something gets slightly too worrying for me, I get this panic attack. My mum had it too. She was on edge her whole life. Because she had been waiting for that call her whole life. All her friends got 'the call', you know? Her friends whose husbands died [in motor racing accidents], they'd all got 'the call'. 'And then Dad retires. She thinks she's in the clear. Her guard is down. And then… 'Oh, here's the call'. So I've lived with that anxiety, that bolt out of the blue. And even if I speak about it now I touch wood.' The man who 'never wanted to be an F1 driver' Hill's story has been told before. His autobiography, Watching the Wheels, published in 2016, was a typically insightful and eloquent attempt to grapple with life's big questions by a man who has become an acclaimed pundit on both television and radio. But it has now been made into a documentary, too, which is why we are speaking today. Hill, a 90-minute film directed by BAFTA-nominated film-maker Alex Holmes, premieres on Sky Documentaries on July 2, the opening day of British Grand Prix weekend. 'I hope F1 fans like it,' Hill says. 'And that people who aren't interested in Formula One get something from it, too. It's a human story, ultimately.' It certainly packs an emotional punch. Right from its opening montage, in which footage of the 1994 world championship denouement in Adelaide (which as all F1 fans know is where Hill was famously denied the title after being punted out of the race by a certain Michael Schumacher) is interspersed with grainy home videos from Hill's childhood, and shots of the plane wreckage. 'My whole life people asked me, 'Do you want to be an F1 driver like your dad?'' Hill says as the opening credits roll. 'The truth is I never wanted to be one. It's almost like I was trying to get back to the start again… the place where it all went off the rails. [Because] if I could get back to the start again, maybe I could put right everything which went wrong.' What drove Hill? Undoubtedly he became an F1 driver because his father was. But would he have become one unless his father died in the way he did? Was he trying to prove himself worthy of his father? To mend himself? Mend his family? These are questions Hill has spent much of his life pondering. He is still not sure. 'Was it like some sort of Greek tragedy?' he asks. 'You know, your fate is set in stone and there's nothing you can do to avoid it. Was that it? I don't know.' He definitely felt a weight of responsibility towards his mother, Bette, and to his sisters Brigitte (18 months older than Damon) and Samantha (four years younger). They had enjoyed a privileged childhood, moving from Hampstead to a large pile in Hertfordshire when Damon was a boy. 'Motor racing was lucrative,' Hill explains in the film. 'Call it danger money. We had a taste of the high life. We were very lucky children.' Family archive footage of Damon and Brigitte playing with their father, swimming, giggling, waterskiing on sunny holidays, attests to that. 'We were all shocked by how quickly the party ended [after he died],' Hill says. 'The world moves on very quickly. Dad was obviously the attraction.' The scenes in which Hill recalls the night his father died are particularly raw. It happened six months after Graham had announced his retirement and the family had 'all breathed a huge sigh of relief', having spent years worrying they might get 'the call'. Damon was watching television with Samantha. 'I can't remember what it was, probably M*A*S*H or something.' The programme was interrupted by a newsflash about a private plane crashing on to Arkley golf course, on the approach to Elstree. Hill knew his father was making his way back to Elstree from a test at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, along with five passengers who comprised the core of his new Embassy Hill F1 team. He remembers a 'wave of heat coming up through my legs and then into my face'. Panic. Hill made his way to the kitchen to see his mother, who was entertaining neighbours, waiting for her husband to join them. But before he got there, the phone in the hall rang. 'I hid, because I wanted to hear what they were saying, because I was terrified,' he says. It was a reporter. Bette told them to go away. When Hill told her what he had seen on the news, and said, 'I think it's Daddy', 'she got hysterical – she just started screaming and getting very cross, saying, 'I knew it was too good to be true'.' 'Mum went to five funerals in a week' Life had changed for ever. Not only did the family have to deal with the grief of losing their father and husband, the 'life and soul of every party', someone Damon clearly adored, the aftermath was extremely messy. The plane, it turned out, was not registered properly. Graham Hill's instrument rating, proving he was qualified to fly at night and in poor visibility, had not been renewed. He had borrowed money to fund his team. The family were forced to sell everything, including the house. Hill, barely into his teens, was left with a mass of contradictory feelings; anger, sadness, even guilt. 'It was bewildering. I think I was just at that perfect age of only understanding a bit, but not being able to comprehend or process it all. Obviously there were other families involved so it was not just our grief. My mum went to five funerals in a week, one of them being her husband's. And the reason she couldn't get to the other one was because there were two funerals on the same day. 'Think about that. What was that like for my mum? What could she do? What was it like for those families having my mum there? How did they feel about my dad? You know, I have met some of the children of the other passengers occasionally. But, I mean, it's very difficult. What can you say? You do feel like saying 'Do you want an apology?' But why am I the person who should feel that? And is it even appropriate?' Hill's early years in racing, initially on motorbikes, his real passion, and later cars, are again accompanied by some wonderful home video footage. On his 11th birthday, Hill is presented with a motorbike by his dad at Brands Hatch, an occasion he remembers chiefly for being hugely embarrassed. 'I didn't want to be in the limelight, being pushed forward because you're the son of…' But the real star of the documentary is Hill's wife Georgie. Her contributions are so well-judged, so intimate, the film-makers ended up using only the interviews with her and Hill, leaving out contributions from the likes of Sir Jackie Stewart, Adrian Newey and Ross Brawn. Georgie's memories of their courtship, Hill in his racing leathers draped across his bike, are both amusing and poignant. 'On the surface he was joking around, but he was one of the saddest people I've come across in my life,' she recalls. She remembers going on a trip to a race meeting when suddenly they stopped outside a churchyard and Hill broke down in tears. It was the churchyard in Hertfordshire in which his father was buried. 'That was the first time he'd ever mentioned him to me. And that was after six months.' Georgie's recollections of Imola in 1994, when Ayrton Senna, Hill's team-mate at Williams, died in a tragic accident, are similarly insightful. Before the race, Senna walked into her room in the team motorhome to find her reading and stayed for a while. 'He was asking about Ollie [the Hills' eldest child] and talking about how happy he was with his nephews, playing with them in the sea. He's leaving and he stops and says: 'Don't worry about Damon, he's going to be fine. Williams are a great team. They're safe. They'll look after him.' He literally walked out, went to his garage, went straight to his car. And that was that.' F1 fans might be surprised the film makes no mention of Roland Ratzenberger, the Austrian driver who also lost his life during that Imola race weekend. The makers apparently decided F1 fans already know the history, and those who did not, did not need the extra detail. Producer Simon Lazenby, of Sky Sports F1, who first came up with the idea for the film when he and Damon were flying back from a race in Canada in 2018, admits cost was also a factor. The film was made on 'a tight budget, six figures rather than seven', with every minute of archive footage costing thousands. In that respect, it helps that Hill has always been a keen videographer, just like his father was. 'Dad had a Super 8, an 8mm film. And I think maybe because he did it… I don't know, I just loved capturing those moments, too. I gave the makers hours and hours of home videos to wade through, way too much in fact!' 'I am competitive. And so is Georgie' Hill's rise from novice bike rider to novice racing car driver to F1 test driver to F1 world champion is interspersed with home footage of Georgie and their expanding family. The couple have four children: Oliver, Josh, Tabitha and Rosie. Ollie was born with Down's syndrome, just when Damon was getting his F1 career under way, another key moment. Georgie remembers the hospital staff scribbling down the names of care homes that might take him. 'He wasn't even 12 hours old and they'd laid out his future for him,' she says. 'And I felt: 'Right, OK, if that's all he's worth. He's worth a lot more to us.'' Damon and Georgie are now patrons of the Down's Syndrome Association, as well as Halow, a charity based near them in Guildford which Damon co-founded. The day after we speak, Damon is racing in his annual karting event for the charity at Sandown. It is now in its 12th year. 'Halow provides a community for people with learning disabilities,' Hill says. 'It's unbelievably important. Of course, the funding has all been slashed and they're suffering like many charities.' Ollie usually lives in supported-living across the road, but he is temporarily living back in with them having recently undergone a double hip operation. Hill takes me over to say hello while he is lying on the treatment table and we have a funny conversation in which he cannot hear me because I am speaking into Hill's earpods. Their other son, Josh, was a single-seater racer for a while. Hill was understandably a little anxious when Josh first broached the idea of racing, given what it had put him through. 'Oh my God! No! That's what I thought. But what I said was, 'Oh. OK! Great!'' he wrote in his book. But he backed him all the way to European F3 before Josh quit suddenly in 2013, initially to pursue a musical career. Hill was impressed both by his son's driving skills and his decisiveness; knowing what he wanted in life. It is back to that overarching theme again. What drove Hill? In one particularly revealing bit of home video in the documentary, at a school sports day involving Josh in the early 2000s, Hill might have been interviewing himself. 'You want him to be the best don't you?' he asks Georgie. 'No, as long as he's back safely,' she counters. 'I don't want him to be competitive at all. I want him to enjoy his life.' Hill persists. 'You don't think he can enjoy his life by winning?' Georgie replies: 'I don't want him to feel he always has to be the best at something and if he hasn't won he has failed. I think that's terrible.' It is a fascinating exchange. Would Hill have been happier if he had just stayed away from it all and enjoyed his life? 'Well that's a very keen observation,' he says. 'And yeah, I mean, it is a question I constantly asked myself during my career… it's this contradiction, this paradox, the yin and yang of your being, isn't it? 'Actually in that video, I'm sort of playing devil's advocate. We had just come back from living in Ireland, where everything was very laissez-faire. And then we came back to England and it was Blair's Britain, and we got to this school, I won't mention the name, and it was just push and shove! Everyone was so ambitious. But yes, I am also making a point that I am competitive. And so is Georgie, to be fair. She's a liar! She wanted Josh to win. She wants to win in every game she plays. She denies her competitiveness, but she's got a very, very strong competitive spirit.' Hill laughs. Georgie was, he admits, nervous about contributing to the film at first. 'She didn't want to talk about anything. But I think she thinks it's a good film now she's got over it. You know, it's a weepy really. With a happy ending. And she's brilliant in it. I'm going to be left behind now. She's going to go off with Tom Cruise or someone.' 'You never want to go back and revisit these experiences' It is difficult not to feel happy for Hill. At how his life has panned out. Now 64, he is almost universally loved by F1 fans, not simply because he overcame such a traumatic adolescent experience, but because he never compromised his values. He tried to do it the right way. By his own admission, he was not the most talented driver of all time. But he was one of the most decent. In a sport literally known as the 'Piranha Club', in which the protagonists are mostly alpha males, Hill was the opposite. He was introverted and withdrawn. He had to learn to stand up for himself. But he was never corrupted. It is what gives him authenticity now when he calls out the sometimes erratic behaviour of drivers such as Max Verstappen. Hill's criticism of the Dutchman and his Red Bull team may well have cost him his job at Sky Sports F1 at the end of last year. Verstappen complained about 'biased people' within the paddock and Hill was gone weeks later. 'I like to think not,' he told The Telegraph earlier this year. 'I hope not.' Before he hangs up, I ask whether the film was in some ways cathartic. Going back over his life, trying to make sense of it all. He had done it already in his book, of course. But this was someone else asking him the questions, going over home footage which had long been gathering dust. 'I mean, you never want to go back and revisit these experiences,' he says at length. 'They're painful, and they still carry the residue of the horror and the shock. But I think you'll find that people who do a lot of therapy are quite resilient, because you don't have the illusions any more. You don't have this idea of how it could be if only everything was different. You just try to come to terms with the world, rather than get the world to come to terms with you.' Hill smiles again. 'It was enjoyable [making the film], going through all the old archives, the different haircuts through the ages, the children, everything that was going on contemporaneously. Because that's real life. I mean, all these F1 drivers… we see them now, they show themselves off on their speedboats or whatever. But when they go back to their apartments, they're human like the rest of us. They all go 'What's on the telly?' F1 is this extraordinary, high-octane world, but in between, it's unbelievably normal. I used to come back after winning a race and put the bins out.'


The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
Toto Wolff confirms Mercedes are again considering swoop for Max Verstappen
Toto Wolff has confirmed Mercedes are once more considering a move to tempt the four-time world champion Max Verstappen, with a place potentially available at the team from next season as George Russell has yet to have his contract renewed for 2026. Russell had revealed on Thursday that Mercedes were interested in Verstappen, stating: 'It's only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing.' Wolff was then faced with a barrage of questions on the subject when the Mercedes team principal addressed the press at the Austrian Grand Prix and ultimately acknowledged that the team were indeed investigating options with the Dutch driver and suggested that talks were taking place. 'As a team principal responsible for the best car brand in the world it is clear you're exploring what a four-time world champion is going to do in the future,' he said. Verstappen is contracted with Red Bull until 2028 but is understood to have performance-related exit options available to him if he is outside the top four by the summer break that falls after the Hungarian Grand Prix. He is currently third. Wolff was open in his previous pursuit of Verstappen until the middle of last season when the Dutch driver committed to staying at Red Bull and Mercedes signed Kimi Antonelli on a multiyear deal. In Austria, Wolff insisted he did not want to hide any negotiations from his drivers. 'What we are trying to do in the team is be transparent,' he said. 'You can choose to hold things under wraps, or do what we've done in the last 20 years I've been here is putting it out there and saying this is the situation. These drivers are clever people and they talk to each other. 'I'm saying it how it is and there's no such thing as saying we are going to sign Max, because it's so far away that it's not realistic at that stage. So with George, we talk about everything.' Verstappen did not deny talks were taking place when asked. 'I don't think we need to talk about that,' he said. 'I don't know, do you want me to repeat what I said last year? I don't know. It's the same answer.' Last year when faced with the same questions at this race, Verstappen emphatically confirmed he would remain at Red Bull. His team have brought upgrades to the Red Bull Ring, hopeful they might improve his fortunes, but it was Russell who was quickest in first practice in Spielberg, while McLaren's Lando Norris, also boasting upgrades, topped the time sheets in the second session in what is something of a big weekend for the British driver. Intensely self-critical, Norris will have subjected himself to no little soul-searching in the two weeks since he climbed disconsolately from his stricken car at the Canadian Grand Prix after hitting his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion The clash was considered inevitable at some point between the two drivers vying for the world championship but its implications have far more import for Norris. The Briton was attempting to pass Piastri in Montreal, clipped the Australian's car and clattered off into the pit wall, his race over. He held his hands up immediately, his contrition clear even, as McLaren had already all but acknowledged it was a matter of when not if the two finally came together, given the team's stance on allowing their drivers to race one another. Yet for McLaren there has been no panic and certainly no sudden imposition of restrictions curtailing their drivers' freedom to compete. Having dealt with it, it is business as usual. For Norris, however, it represents a bruising reminder of quite what is at stake and the intensifying pressure on him to deliver if he is to retain his world championship ambitions. With 10 races gone he trails Piastri by 22 points and while it is far from an insurmountable gap with 14 meetings to go, of more concern is that the form is overwhelmingly with the Australian. Norris had begun as favourite and had taken victory in the season opener in Australia, where Piastri made his only major mistake thus far, spinning off in sudden, treacherous rain in Melbourne. Since when and until Canada, the Australian enjoyed a run of eight consecutive top-three finishes including five wins. Norris's performances in contrast have been peppered with minor errors and some more costly, including Canada and crashing out of qualifying in Saudi Arabia. 'Lando himself will have to show his character to overcome this kind of episode,' said the team principal, Andrea Stella, and Austria is a chance for Norris to reset and reassert at a key moment for the 25-year-old.