While much of the attention after the Austrian Grand Prix focused on George Russell’s return to winning ways, Red Bull’s progress and Ferrari’s difficult weekend following its Barcelona triumph, another remarkable story unfolded further down the order. Racing Bulls quietly achieved a milestone never before seen in the team’s history, with both cars finishing in the points for the third consecutive race.
Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad secured ninth and tenth places respectively at the Red Bull Ring, extending an impressive run that began in Monaco and continued through the Spanish Grand Prix. For the Faenza-based outfit, it marks the first time since the team became Toro Rosso nearly twenty years ago—and later AlphaTauri—that it has managed three consecutive double points finishes.
Even more importantly, the achievement confirms the growing competitiveness and consistency of the VCARB03, which has now scored points in seven of the first eight races of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Only the Miami Grand Prix prevented the Italian squad from maintaining a perfect record.
A milestone built on consistency
The Austrian result was significant for more than just the history books. The three points collected at Spielberg allowed Racing Bulls to reduce the gap to Alpine in the Constructors’ Championship after the Enstone team had unexpectedly placed both of its cars inside the top ten in Spain.
In what promises to be an extremely tight midfield battle throughout the season, consistency will ultimately prove more valuable than occasional standout performances. In Austria, Racing Bulls once again demonstrated that it is currently the most reliable team among the midfield contenders.
As highlighted during the opening rounds of the championship, one of the VCARB03’s greatest strengths is its impressive straight-line speed. The power delivered by the Milton Keynes-built power unit—still regarded as one of the strongest engines on the grid regardless of the ongoing ADUO discussion—has undoubtedly played an important role in those performances.
The engine advantage tells only part of the story
The advantage over Alpine remained relatively small, largely because the Enstone squad also benefits from a highly competitive power unit. It is no coincidence that Alpine tends to perform particularly well on power-sensitive circuits.
The comparison with Audi, however, painted a different picture. Although the German manufacturer has developed a respectable chassis, it continues to struggle in terms of power unit performance. In Austria, Racing Bulls enjoyed an advantage of more than three tenths of a second, a valuable margin in both qualifying and race conditions.
Over a full race distance, Audi eventually finished around ten seconds behind. The gap highlighted not only the difference in internal combustion engine performance but also Audi’s continuing difficulty in keeping its battery sufficiently charged throughout a lap, a limitation that costs several tenths every lap.
On a power-sensitive circuit such as the Red Bull Ring, that weakness naturally becomes even more apparent. However, attributing Racing Bulls’ success solely to engine performance would be overly simplistic. The VCARB03 has now scored points in seven of the first eight Grands Prix, demonstrating a level of overall competitiveness that extends well beyond the characteristics of any individual circuit.
Parallels with the Mercedes-Ferrari battle
In some respects, Austria offered an interesting comparison between the Mercedes-Ferrari fight at the front and the Racing Bulls-Audi battle in the midfield.
While Ferrari suffered severe tyre degradation over long runs due to an unstable rear end and a car that was heavily biased towards the front axle—prompting its drivers to repeatedly request less rear wing to rebalance the car—Audi actually managed tyre wear far more effectively.
So where was the difference?
The straight-line performance gap between Mercedes and Ferrari, a car that continues to generate relatively high drag, proved much larger. Without a significant cornering advantage to compensate, Ferrari’s race pace deteriorated dramatically over longer stints.
Between Racing Bulls and Audi, by contrast, the straight-line deficit was much smaller, particularly in the second half of the lap. At the same time, the difference in cornering performance was also relatively limited.
That meant Audi could occasionally recover a small amount of time through the corners, but never enough to get close enough to challenge the Racing Bulls cars. Instead, the VCARB03 steadily increased its advantage until the gap exceeded ten seconds by the chequered flag.
Although Audi avoided the dramatic race pace collapse experienced by Ferrari and managed to remain reasonably close to its midfield rivals, the Austrian Grand Prix once again confirmed that the VCARB03 is one of the most complete and well-rounded cars in Formula 1’s midfield.
Alan Permane praises the team’s efforts
“It was practically a perfect weekend for us here in Austria. In recent races we had a very quick car over one lap, but we hadn’t managed to convert that pace into strong race performance. The entire team, both here at the circuit and back at our factories in Faenza and Milton Keynes, worked incredibly hard to turn that around,” said Team Principal Alan Permane.
“We brought an upgrade package and already on Friday we had some indications that our long-run pace looked promising, but until you actually race you can never be completely sure. Today it quickly became obvious that we were competitive, so huge congratulations to Liam and Arvid for comfortably bringing the cars home in ninth and tenth place.”
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