Q&A after Austria: Verstappen-Norris crash & next move for Sainz

George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided in a fight for the lead.

It was a controversial climax to a battle over several laps as each complained about the other’s driving.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri finished second and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was third.

Next up is the British Grand Prix for the final part of the Europe triple-header.

BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your questions after the race in Austria.

How much will the crash in the closing laps of the Austrian GP affect the way Max Verstappen and Lando Norris now race each other? – Ruairidh

The intensity of the battle between Verstappen and Norris in Austria was caused by Verstappen’s style of racing - he pushes things to the limit of acceptability.

‘Moving under braking’ - or changing one’s line when in the braking phase while defending - is a no-no in F1, because of the dangers involved when a driver is attacking from behind and is forced to change his trajectory to avoid a crash when already braking on the limit. Norris accused Verstappen of doing this in Austria but Verstappen denied it.

After the race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella drew a direct line between this incident and the controversial battles between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021, when many of the other drivers thought Verstappen had, at times, broken the rules.

“The problem behind it,” Stella said, “is that if you don’t address these things honestly, then they come back. They came back today because they were not addressed properly in the past when there were some fights with Lewis that needed to be punished in a harsher way.

“You learn now to race in a certain way that you can consider fair and square.

“We have so much respect for Red Bull and for Max. They don’t need to do this. It’s a way to almost compromise your reputation. Why would you do that?

“It’s not about racing in a driver’s way. It’s about racing in the regulations, and the regulations must be enforced in a way that is effective.”

Verstappen says he has not done anything wrong and described his 10-second penalty on Sunday as a bit severe.

Until he starts getting consistently punished for the way he races, Verstappen won’t change - and perhaps not even then. And why should he, one could argue?

The question for Norris, then, is how to deal with that?

Why did Max only get a 10-second penalty on the incident with Lando but not a place penalty? – Kenny

F1 stewards like to keep penalties for racing incidents relevant to the race in which they were earned if they can. And as there was a possibility to punish Verstappen for his transgression in this case, they chose it.

Of course, you can argue that the way the race panned out, the penalty had no effect on Verstappen - he was given 10 seconds but was more than double that ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas in sixth place, so did not lose his fifth position.

You can argue this has denied any sense of effective justice for the incident. And for Lando Norris, it must be especially galling, as he was forced to retire because of Verstappen’s actions.

But this is the way it is sometimes in F1 - in Spain for example, Logan Sargeant qualified 20th and got a three-place grid penalty for impeding and ended up starting 19th because team-mate Alex Albon had his own penalty for Williams breaking parc ferme regulations.

Now that McLaren and Mercedes have improved a lot, are Ferrari's title hopes fading already? Are they now the fourth-best team in the field? – Liam

Ferrari started the season as the second-fastest team to Red Bull. On average qualifying pace, taking just the races since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in mid-May, they are fourth fastest, behind McLaren and Mercedes.

But this group of teams is working to fine margins at the moment - the gaps between them are small.

Take Austria last weekend, for example. Charles Leclerc had an error-strewn weekend. But had he not messed up his final lap in qualifying, he would likely have been competing for second or third on the grid - ahead of the Mercedes.

Assuming he had held that position in the race, he, rather than Russell, could have been in a position to win.

Ferrari have had a succession of difficult weekends since Leclerc won in Monaco. But they are very far from out of it yet.

Do you think there would ever be a second F1 race in the UK or even Ireland? – David

The F1 calendar is already 24 races long. That’s one race fewer than the teams’ contracts say is the maximum length of season, and Greg Maffei, chief executive officer of F1 owner Liberty Media, has said this year it is “highly unlikely we’re going to go above 24”.

At the same time, a number of countries are interested in hosting races - Thailand and South Korea among them - and F1 is keen to have a race in Africa.

In that context, it’s hard to see how a second race in the UK could fit in, especially as Silverstone already struggles to make its race work financially.

As for Ireland - wouldn’t it be great to have a race there? It’s a beautiful country and Dublin is a great capital city. But life is tough for European races at the moment. It never comes up in F1 conversations and I’ve not heard of any attempt to try to get a race in Ireland for a long time.

There’s lots of interest in the next move for Carlos Sainz. Would there be any benefit in him sitting out a year? - David

Sainz has every reason to feel a little hard done by - he’s been driving for Ferrari for the past four years and has been a tough team-mate for Charles Leclerc, even if Leclerc is on balance slightly faster. And now, following Ferrari’s decision to sign Lewis Hamilton for 2025, he is faced with a drop to the second half of the grid because Red Bull and Mercedes did not want him, for their own reasons.

Sainz’s choice is between Williams, Sauber/Audi and Alpine, and he says he has not yet made up his mind where to go. On the face of it there is no obvious benefit to him sitting out a year, and it’s not something drivers usually like to do. It’s too easy to be forgotten as things move on.

I don’t believe it is something on his mind.

Could Esteban Ocon get a year at Mercedes given that Toto Woolf is his manager? If they don’t get Max Verstappen and decide not to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli - Andrew

No, in short. Ocon has a management relationship with Mercedes but he has not been under consideration for a drive there for nearly a decade.

Mercedes are locked into their path - either they attract Verstappen, or Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be in the car alongside George Russell next year.

Ocon looks to be heading to Haas, Sauber/Audi or Williams. But Sainz likely has to make his move first before the other dominoes start to fall into place. Valtteri Bottas is also in the picture at these teams - as well as Alpine.

With both McLarens in the points regularly and Sergio Perez struggling, do you think McLaren could win the constructors' title this season? – Ryan

It’s definitely possible. At the moment, McLaren are 87 points behind Red Bull with 13 races still go, and Sergio Perez has been going through a difficult period since the Miami Grand Prix and is showing no signs of getting out of it.

But, as with the drivers’ championship, it would probably require the McLaren drivers to start beating Max Verstappen regularly for it to be truly on.