When boredom envelops F1: the Austrian GP between McLaren dominance and zero overtaking

The Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring had all the right ingredients to offer a spectacle: rivals determined to redeem themselves and the allure of a short but technical circuit. Instead, what we witnessed was an unchallenged dominance by McLaren in a flat race, devoid of overtaking and full of predictability. An increasingly recurring déjà-vu, which sounds like a warning signal for the future of F1.

Boredom and predictability

With the retirement on the first lap of Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, the performance gap between McLaren and the rest of the group was immediately clear. Starting from first place, Lando Norris dominated without ever being worried, while Oscar Piastri easily managed second place. If we add to this the new gap in the standings of 61 points between the latter and Verstappen, any libido in the fight for the world championship is extinguished.

Charles Leclerc’s third place and Lewis Hamilton’s fourth, with a clear advantage of 20 seconds from the top two, is a sign that the real fight has come down to a mirror image: McLaren against McLaren . “ Oscar and I had a great battle, which was a lot of fun, and we were able to maximise the pace of the car and the strategy, ” commented Lando Norris at the end of the race.

The monotony

If in previous editions Austria offered excitement, speed and overtaking, this time the most emblematic fact is not the spectacle itself, but the nothing that actually happened. A GP of 71 laps in which the gap between leader and pursuer was unbridgeable, overtaking was practically absent and tires managed to perfection, all factors that on the one hand excite the engineers, on the other alienate the public.

The data at the end of the race speaks for itself: Norris imposed an unmatchable pace and the total absence of exciting duels between the leading cars transformed the story of the race into a TV series in which the ending is already known well before the starting grid.

McLaren Question

A dominant team is not a problem in itself, history has shown that great battles also arise from technical superiority. Last year it was McLaren who overturned the Red Bull dominance with a second part of the season worthy of the most beautiful pages of F1. Many expect that everything can be repeated in 2025, because if the technical gap becomes such as to reduce the action on the track to a monologue, there is a risk of losing the appeal of the competition itself.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella continues to assert that there are very small margins between the competing teams: “ We will enjoy the moment, but not for long, our attention must switch to the British GP. We want another strong performance at our home race, for our technical partners, for our commercial partners and, above all, our many fans at Silverstone who have been with us on this extraordinary journey .”

And while McLaren is enjoying a season to remember, the fans are crying out in dissatisfaction.

Looking for Rivals

Red Bull seems to have understood the problem and has been working on tire degradation for weeks. But if the real gap concerns tire management, not even rivals Ferrari and Mercedes seem to be closing the gap. At the moment everyone seems condemned to chase , everyone incapable of exploiting updates, new developments or alternative strategies to start duels even just on the straight.

F1 thrives on rivalry, it is the element that historically fuels the passion of the fans, lights up the tracks and makes the championships memorable. And yet, in Austria the scenario was bleak. After years of Red Bull domination, the illusion that McLaren could at least shuffle the cards is rapidly fading, turning into a new monologue. Behind Norris, emptiness.

Ferrari is plagued by chronic performance problems, Mercedes alternates flashes of lucidity with disastrous weekends, while Aston Martin has practically disappeared from the radar. There is no real contender, there is no wheel-to-wheel duel that lasts more than a few corners. Even the smaller teams no longer dare to challenge the hierarchies. Something or someone is needed to break this artificial balance.

Side effects

The problem of boredom on the track can have a direct impact on ratings, less on sponsors but evident on the narrative of F1. A GP without overtaking will inevitably lead to a lower emotional involvement of the fan

What remedies? There is no single magic solution, but who knows, maybe this is the right time to implement the BoP ( Balance of Performance ) in the regulation. Let's be clear, where it has already been inserted, it does not seem to be the panacea, see among the Hypercars of the FIA ​​WEC.

A more incisive regulatory reform could reduce the gap between teams and favor the action on the track. In the meantime, space for media stories and films useful to compensate for the boredom of the track.

Austria alarm bell

The Austrian GP represents a symbolic moment of the 2025 season: a boring domination disguised as engineering perfection . To date, the feeling is that if nothing changes, the crowd may gradually fall out of love with F1 again.

The Red Bull Ring has always been one of the most spectacular circuits on the calendar, but even here it has produced neither spectacle nor tension. When even the tracks fail in their goal of entertaining, the problem becomes structural. It is a warning bell that Liberty Media and the FIA ​​can no longer ignore: between extreme aerodynamics, too similar single-seaters and technical regulations that penalize unpredictability, F1 risks becoming a product for display, beautiful to look at but devoid of soul.

The future of the format

The F1 of 2025 is an ambiguous mix : excellence and boredom. Without a credible opponent, the season fades. If F1 wants to maintain its place at the top of the entertainment ladder and in global sports culture, it must react.

The Austrian GP has launched a warning: spectacle does not only mean speed, but also struggle, uncertainty, twists and turns. And these, in fact, are not there.

As we wait for Silverstone, the verdict is clear: at the highest level, F1 risks becoming boring. And no sport can survive only thanks to technical perfection if this means eliminating adrenaline and unpredictability. The current format no longer works.