The underlying significance of three major Austrian Grand Prix announcements

How quickly things change in F1, eh?

When we look back on 2024, June 26 may stand out as one of the most significant days away from the track.

Three teams all made announcements of their own, almost one after another, in moves that shored up their future but all three will have different reasons to be optimistic about the years to come.

The first announcement came from Enstone (at 10:10 Austrian time, hinted at in a social post) with Pierre Gasly being confirmed to a new multi-year deal.

Just a couple of weeks ago, there was talk that with the team failing to find any kind of form, Gasly may be looking for pastures new – which means it will have been an almighty sigh of relief for Alpine to announce the Frenchman’s new deal on Thursday.

Appearing at their pre-season launch, both drivers spoke of concern about the team’s performance and deftly left the door open for any potential suitors to give their respective agents a call. We often hear that every driver is speaking to every team in one form or another but with Gasly and with Esteban Ocon, you got that sense that they could actually be tempted by a move away, a thought that only increased as the team made a poor start to the year.

Now, say it quietly, but the car actually looks quite good. A fact that even Gasly was unable to fully comprehend after his Q3 quali in Spain.

“For now, no. I wish,” he said when asked if he knew why the A524 had performed so strongly.

“But I can only tell what I feel in the car and what I feel in the car is very similar to what we’ve had, but we just seem to have somehow more potential available on it.

“We can see a few things here and there which are interesting on data, but we definitely need more digging.”

That digging will have occurred in the short gap between Spain and Austria and the weekend in Spielberg will be the test of whether Alpine have solved the riddle, but there is every reason to think that this upturn in performance played some part in Gasly’s decision to stay.

A source told PlanetF1.com as late as Sunday that he had not yet signed a new deal but now that he has, it is easy to see why Alpine would have been desperate to hold onto him.

With Ocon heading out the door, Alpine were facing a potential 2025 with two new drivers and it was not easy to see whom they would be able to entice. Junior driver Jack Doohan seemed a likely candidate but if Gasly did walk away, who would fill in for his experience? Bottas? Magnussen? Even Zhou?

These were not names that inspired a great deal of optimism and yet now, they have Gasly signed and if rumours are to be believed they may well pull off quite the coup and land the most in-demand driver in the paddock, Carlos Sainz.

Next on the announcement list was Aston Martin with a confirmation we all knew was coming, but a box that needed ticking none-the-less, as Lance Stroll signed a new deal for the next couple of seasons.

But despite this being a matter of when not if, of all the times that Stroll has extended his stay at the Silverstone outfit, there were more doubts this time. Lawrence Stroll’s selling of a minority stake to US private equity firm Arctos Partners last year was hinted as a sign of the Canadian billionaire possibly releasing his iron grasp from the team, but so far that has not come to pass.

Besides, if you listened to any press conference coming from the team in green, you would have known they were more than happy with Lance’s contribution. Mike Krack has billed him as an important member of the team, one that perhaps provides more back at the factory then he does on race day, while Fernando Alonso has pegged him as the team’s future.

Pay drivers are unlikely to ever gain widespread admiration but Stroll Jnr is often treated too harshly when he is put in the same sentence as the likes of, say, Nikita Mazepin.

Is Stroll one of the best 20 drivers on the planet? Maybe not. But he is a competent Formula 1 driver. He has scored 285 points in total, registered three podiums and took pole position at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.

He beat Sebastian Vettel in race trim more times than the German beat him and while he is never going to produce the jaw-dropping drives that his current team-mate can, he is one of the more experienced members of the grid.

Stroll himself was eager to point to the work behind the scenes that is giving Aston a light to aim for at the end of their current tunnel. A workforce of 450 has become more than 1,000. A wind tunnel is in the process of being built (just look at the benefit that, and other factors, had for McLaren) and the team is on an upward trajectory.

All the announcements from Thursday in Austria

Pierre Gasly stays with Alpine, update on new team-mate announcement

Lance Stroll Aston Martin future update as 2025 grid takes shape

Williams send Carlos Sainz message with 26 new recruits added from F1 rivals

And speaking of new hires, the final announcement came from Grove and James Vowles’ ambitious project.

Staff hirings are not unusual in the world of F1 but if there was ever a statement of intent, this was it. No fewer than 26 people were confirmed as either having already joined Williams or were on their way and the line “several from Mercedes and Ferrari, four from Red Bull and 10 from Alpine” showed just how proud Williams were at their ability to entice major players away from other F1 teams.

A driver may come in and change the team’s fortunes from day one but the benefit of staff members takes far longer and is ultimately more influential. McLaren are again an example of getting the right people in and waiting for the flowers from your seeds.

Staff arrivals from Alpine, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull represent significant coups and the arrival of an AI expert tells you everything you need to know about Vowles’ goals for a team that up until very recently used Microsoft Excel to keep track of its parts.

But more than that, this feels like the announcement may well have been addressed to a Mr C. Sainz.

Vowles has been clear that he wants the Ferrari man to be another cog in this machine and it can no longer be said Williams lack ambition.

Signing Sainz would bring an immediate boost but Williams, like Alpine and Aston Martin, believe the announcement made on Thursday in Austria has sent the team on course to success.

Read next: Alpine rock Williams with ‘very attractive’ release clause offer to Carlos Sainz – report