The competition at the sharp end of the Formula 1 grid has been fierce this season – well, that is if you take first place out of the equation.
The Red Bulls are in a class of their own and Max Verstappen is going to win his third title. Below him, though, there is a real scrap on.
Fernando Alonso has been chief challenger to the Red Bulls with six podiums from nine races. But while Aston Martin looked to be best of the rest in terms of car performance for a while, underwhelming results in Spain and Austria showed just how tight the fight for second place is.
Mercedes were magic in Barcelona and Lewis Hamilton also went better than even he expected in Montreal. But at the Red Bull Ring they were miles off it – instead, Ferrari suddenly had the pace.
And out of absolutely nowhere came Lando Norris, suddenly less than 10 seconds away from the podium. He loves that Austrian track and that will have certainly played a part, but so did the significant upgrades given to him by his McLaren team.
The Woking-based outfit has had a rotten season so far. Just two years ago they were the top midfield outfit ready to pounce on the 'big three'. They've since been overtaken by both Aston Martin and Alpine, relegated to a place in the bottom half of the F1 pecking order.
That might not be the case for much longer, if the Austria race is anything to go by. We will need to see more evidence, including at track less suited to their car, but the first outing for their B-spec car couldn't have been much more encouraging.
Points have been hard to come by but, suddenly, with one (albeit significant) upgrade, Norris finished fourth – a little over nine seconds adrift of Sergio Perez.
More telling, though, was the gap between Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri. The Aussie was not given the same upgrades in Austria with the team keen to measure the difference between the cars. The answer was around a full lap of the Red Bull Ring, according to the stopwatch.
It's a hugely encouraging development for McLaren, who have been behind the curve all season long. Suddenly, they appear to have a car in which they can compete for the places that they would have hoped to have been fighting for from the start of the year.
And it gets better. Not only will Piastri also have the new toys at this weekend's British Grand Prix, but the second part of this giant upgrade package is expected to be ready. As if that's not enough, a third update is due two weeks later in Hungary.
McLaren legend Mika Hakkinen recently predicted that his old team might even by capable of fighting Red Bull by the end of this year. While that may be a little ambitious, it goes to show what the mood is like in Woking these days after a difficult start to 2023.
In any case, it seems that fight for the places below the Red Bulls just got even tighter. And, if McLaren's next couple of upgrades have a similar effect, Norris and Piastri might be able to cause headaches for the likes of Alonso and Hamilton on a regular basis.
