Max Verstappen had problems during his second pit stop in the race and they persisted until his collision with Norris.
Max Verstappen couldn’t understand why his Red Bull Formula 1 vehicle became “uncontrollable” during the Austrian Grand Prix, resulting in the loss of what could have been a certain victory.
After securing pole position with a four-tenth advantage, Verstappen was comfortably leading the race with a nine-second gap to Lando Norris in the early stages.
However, as his second pit stop progressed, Verstappen expressed dissatisfaction with the minimal traction he was experiencing, allowing Norris to gradually close the gap.
Red Bull was slow to respond to Verstappen’s complaints and even slower during the pit stop, allowing McLaren to position themselves just behind Red Bull.
Verstappen couldn’t resist Norris’ advances and defended against several attacks until the two collided at Turn 3, resulting in punctures for both drivers and ruining their chances of victory.
The reigning champion, who received a penalty but managed to finish in fifth place and extend his lead in the championship, described his race at the Red Bull Ring as a “disaster”.
“I believe the first phase of the race was quite good, but towards the end of that phase, I encountered a significant amount of traffic. We should have made a pit stop because I was losing valuable time,” he said.
“So, we made a lot of mistakes today, starting with our strategy, followed by disastrous pit stops. The first one was really bad and the second one was even worse.
“We lost six seconds during those two pit stops, which allowed the race to become competitive again, putting us in this situation.
“Unfortunately, there was an accident between us, something we never want to happen. However, today we made every possible mistake.”
Verstappen couldn’t provide an explanation for the sudden change from easily controlling the race to being unable to prevent Norris from closing the gap.
“Today was simply terrible. I have no explanation for the fact that the car’s behavior changed from decent balance in the first part to being undriveable afterwards.”
“This usually indicates that something was wrong, but even so, we should have won today if it weren’t for the numerous mistakes during the pit stops.”
Although Verstappen switched to a previously used Medium compound, while Norris opted for a new set, the Red Bull driver denied that this could be the reason for his sudden decrease in speed.
“Both tires didn’t seem favorable, so I don’t believe we made a mistake with the tires,” he clarified.
“My stability in the early part of the race wasn’t that bad, but I can’t explain why the car started getting worse progressively as the race went on.”
“So, that’s also something we need to investigate, the possibility that something may have broken in the car.”
When suggested that he seemed more frustrated with the team’s performance, Verstappen added, “Yes, because today was terrible, everything went wrong.
“I’m expressing my dissatisfaction with the tires, we didn’t have a good pit stop, I got stuck in traffic, there were poorly executed pit stops, so everything went wrong.”
Verstappen, who had previously warned that Red Bull couldn’t see their rivals closing in as something normal, believes that this proves they will be defeated unless they are flawless.
“Everything must be impeccable to win, we achieved that in many races, but today we did everything incorrectly and put ourselves in this position,” he explained.
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