Why Ferrari can take it to the wire in Austrian GP

Squabbling between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz allowed Max Verstappen to convert first position in qualifying to an untroubled victory in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race. But for all of the Red Bull driver's dominance over 23 laps, Ferrari can take heart from the F1-75's long-run pace, which could lend Sunday's race over a much longer duration a very different look.

Ferrari could be accused of being more effective at beating itself than it is Red Bull right now. Unreliability ensured a win in Spain and possibly Azerbaijan went up in smoke. Then 1-2s were squandered at Monaco and Silverstone by highly questionable strategy calls.

The way the pitwall then allowed Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to trip over one another in the sprint race in Austria on Saturday, followed by the two drivers’ decidedly grumpy body language, suggests Ferrari is still leaving the door wide open for Red Bull. But should it take control of the intra-team battle in time for the full grand prix at Speilberg, it just might be able to exploit one of the RB18 machine’s few weaknesses to pounce for a very late victory.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport's F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 after stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham's banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing is undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.