Feature

F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2020 Austrian GP

Max Verstappen (Retired, Lap 11): 8.5/10
For pretty much the whole weekend, Max Verstappen was the only credible threat to the impending Mercedes domination in Austria. Red Bull were going all-out in their efforts to take advantage of the disruption caused by coronavirus to put the Dutch driver into title contention: their first protest stab at Mercedes over DAS failed, but the second against Lewis Hamilton found its mark wonderfully. It elevated Verstappen to the front row of the grid at the last minute, and as the only driver in the top ten on medium tyres. Unfortunately the opening laps of the race simply confirmed the performance advantage of the Mercedes, and then there was disaster on lap 11 for Verstappen when the RB16 went into anti-stall mode and had to be retired. Not his fault of course but nonetheless a gutting start to the 2020 campaign and possibly already enough to rule him out of the title race.

Daniel Ricciardo (Retired, Lap 17): 7/10
Now the senior man in the Renault team, Daniel Ricciardo didn't seem to be suffering from any internal schism resulting from his decision to move to McLaren next year. Comfortably outpacing his new team mate on Friday, he was able to sneak into the final round of qualifying and start from tenth place. Caught out by his former team mate Sebastian Vettel at the start, Ricciardo spent the rest of his race staring at the back of the Ferrari unable to make forward progress. At least he was under no pressure from Pierre Gasly behind, and it allowed him to appreciate the distinct advantages of the R.S.20 over its predecessor. Unfortunately a cooling issue obliged the team to retire the car after just 17 issues, leaving this week's Austrian Grand Prix little more than a shakedown outing for the Australian who is doubtless already pining for the wide open vistas of Woking.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.