From dominance to doubt: Red Bull loses ground as McLaren accelerates

While the international media were just a few meters away waiting for him, Fernando Alonso spent minutes looking at the screen showing the qualification results. With evident surprise, the Spaniard saw how Lando Norris had relegated everyone to bit players during qualifications at the Red Bull Ring - a circuit that normally suits Max Verstappen and his Red Bull Racing very well.

"A second is quite a lot, yes," Alonso said in response to a question from GPblog, referring either to his own time in Q2 or to that of Max Verstappen in Q3. "Lando has always been very strong here, just like McLaren."

Alonso then had a warning for everyone: "I even think the difference will be greater tomorrow [during the race]. In qualification, everyone is closer to McLaren, but in terms of race pace and tire management, they will be in a class of their own during the race. That's something to look forward to," said Alonso.

No one in the F1 paddock expects anything other than a McLaren victory on Sunday. Especially in the expected hot conditions - even hotter than this Saturday - in which the Grand Prix is run, it seems only pure bad luck could prevent Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri from winning. Not even Charles Leclerc, who starts second with his Ferrari.

Max Verstappen certainly doesn't think so, after a qualification in which nothing, absolutely nothing, went right. Starting from the seventh position, the Dutchman from Red Bull Racing is sandwiched between Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto. That basically tells the story of his day, about which Verstappen said that 'everything felt bad, every turn was a problem'. "I just had no balance; it was either oversteer or understeer."

That the RB21 (yet again) failed to impress was particularly painful because an important update had been brought along - specifically a new floor. With improvements to the car, Verstappen had hoped to take a step forward, but it seems his car has gone backward instead.

But where Verstappen in the past has exploded at the media a few times - who still remembers Hungary or Italy last season - there was resignation in the paddock at Spielberg. Of course, his team is working hard to find solutions to the many challenges, but it becomes clear again that it's not realistic to expect those to be found even by 2025.

So the world title? Verstappen reiterated that he's not thinking about it at all. Going from race to race, that's his motto. And the next one in Austria, this Sunday? McLaren is likely to win it; anything else would be a huge surprise.