Verstappen: “We did everything wrong that we could have done wrong…”

Max Verstappen rarely criticises his Red Bull Racing team, which is hardly surprising given the success that they have enjoyed together.

However after his torrid race in Austria, which culminated in a fifth place after his clash with Lando Norris, the World Champion was not shy about referencing mistakes.

His point was that slow pit stops and what he perceived as strategy errors left him more vulnerable to attack from Lando Norris than would otherwise have been the case.

That their battle resulted on contact for which Verstappen was not the fault of the team, but he was adamant that it resulted from the circumstances.

To be fair he used the word “we” in reference to things being done wrong. Nevertheless it was a sign perhaps not just of the increased pressure being applied by Norris and McLaren but also the ongoing tensions in the RBR camp, amid Christian Horner’s feud with Jos Verstappen and the question marks over Max’s long-term commitment to the team.

“I think the first stint was quite good,” said Verstappen when I asked him about his race. “Then, of course, at the end of that first stint, I caught quite a bit of traffic. We should have just boxed, for me personally, because I just gave up free lap time. So we basically did a lot of things wrong today.

“I think for me personally, it started with the strategy. Then the pit stops were a disaster. The first one was already bad, the second one was even more of a disaster. And then, of course, you give free lap time. It’s seconds that you give away, six seconds over those two pit stops. And then, of course, it’s a race again.

“And that’s why, I think also, we put ourselves in a position for unfortunately an accident to happen between us, which you never want to happen. But yeah, we did everything wrong that we could have done wrong today.”

He added: “Today’s has just been off. Everything has been wrong. I mean, I’m complaining about the tyres. We didn’t pit, I was stuck in traffic. Bad execution with a pit stop. So everything just went wrong,”

Verstappen, which switched from intended new hards to a used set of mediums for his finals stint in an effort to find performance, even suspected that there was something wrong with the car.

“I honestly have no explanation why suddenly the car just transformed from an okay balance in the first stint into just undriveable behaviour afterwards, which normally indicates that something was also wrong,” he said.

“But even with that, we should have won today, if you didn’t make so many errors as well, with the pit stops.”

Regarding the medium/hard tyre choice he said: “They both felt bad. So I don’t even think that we did the wrong thing with the tyres.

“My balance in the first stint wasn’t even that bad. But then I don’t know why, but the car just started to become worse and worse throughout the race. So that is also something that we have to look into, maybe that something broke on the car.”

“Today’s has just been off. Everything has been wrong. I mean, I’m complaining about the tyres. We didn’t pit, I was stuck in traffic. Bad execution with a pit stop. So everything just went wrong.”