Max Verstappen named among the ‘losers’ after being outclassed by Charles Leclerc thrice in the Red Bull Ring
Follow Us
Max Verstappen
Coming into Austria, a track that is considered Red Bull and Max Verstappen‘s ‘backyard’, fans had been expecting that Verstappen would, once again, take victory, and early on, that looked like it was the case. The Dutchman took pole position from the two Ferraris by the skin of his teeth, edging out Charles Leclerc by 0.029s and Carlos Sainz by 0.082s, and then won the sprint.
But on Sunday, even if Max Verstappen built a fairly good lead to Charles Leclerc, that lead started being cut down rapidly by the Monegasque. This was due to the RB18 suffering from very high tire degradation as compared to the Ferrari, and so, Leclerc was able to overtake the Dutchman with a brilliant move down the inside on turn 4. Reportedly, Red Bull also GAINED weight from their upgrades.
The Monegasque overtook Verstappen twice more during the race, with much fresher tires both times. Verstappen was also almost overtaken by Carlos Sainz, but an engine failure for the Spaniard saved the second-place result for Max Verstappen, on a day where Ferrari looked much, much stronger. A weekend of much promise eventually just became a weekend of having to maximize the points.
Also Read: Max Verstappen scheduled to stay a bit longer in Austria to gear up for 2023 F1 testing
Red Bull fail to live up to expectations
For the second weekend in a row, Ferrari won the race. They should probably have more victories, if reliability and strategy hadn’t been their Achilles’ heel. At least in Monaco and Spain, Charles Leclerc looked dead-set for victory, while in Azerbaijan he certainly looked competitive, and if he hadn’t had an engine penalty in Canada, it’s not out of the question that he would have been in the battle.
Sergio Perez also retired from Austria fairly early on due to the substantial damage sustained from his collision with George Russell. This meant that Ferrari cut down Red Bull’s lead on the top, and would have cut it down by even more if not for an untimely engine failure for Carlos Sainz. Without the failure, Ferrari would likely have finished 1-2, and Sainz would be level on points with Perez, with Red Bull’s lead being reduced to 35 instead of the current 56.
This is why Lawrence Barretto, writing on his ‘Winners and Losers’ column on Formula 1’s official website, included the two among his losers for the weekend. Most people had expected Red Bull to either be in the ascendancy or at the very least, very competitive with Ferrari, but it did not turn out that way, and on this weekend it seemed that Red Bull had a might deficit to Ferrari.
Also Read: “This should never happen,” Max Verstappen shocked over the misconduct in the Austrian Grand Stands
Stay Updated!
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)