“What year is it?” Red Bull poke fun at podium graphic mishap

“What year is it?” Red Bull poke fun at podium graphic mishap

After the podium graphic for the Austria GP 'messed up', Red Bull joked about it on Twitter.

Red Bull had a weekend below expectations. Max Verstappen took pole position for the sprint race, and duly won it, but was unable to repeat the same result in the race, as the RB18 had much, much worse tire degradation than the Ferrari F1-75, and as such, Max Verstappen was overtaken by Charles Leclerc thrice during the race.

To add to it, Sergio Perez retired fairly early on in the race after his first-lap contact with George Russell. If Carlos Sainz’s engine had not blown up, then Ferrari would have been only 35 points behind Red Bull after this race, as Sainz would have been level on points with Perez, and Leclerc 35 behind Verstappen.

The racing was exhilarating, with the Leclerc overtakes on Verstappen being among the highlights, along with Fernando Alonso overtaking Yuki Tsunoda on the run to turn 4 from the inside, while wagging a finger, and a 5-way battle in the midfield. Austria certainly delivered on this front, and there was also an amusing occurrence following the end of the race.

FS Video

Also Read: “When you drink too much…”: Twitter explodes with hilarious comments as podium winners’ graphic goes horribly wrong in Austrian GP

The ‘podium’

Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton

At the end of the race, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton took their respective places on the podium. But it seems that the podium graphic had other ideas: It refused to acknowledge Charles Leclerc’s victory, and Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz’s retirements, a technical mishap that sent Twitter into raptures.

Instead, the graphic displayed: Sergio Perez on top of the podium, Carlos Sainz in second, and Max Verstappen in third. But the teams stayed the same, and Carlos Sainz was back in Red Bull, his academy team, Sergio Perez in Ferrari, his academy team, and Max Verstappen…in Mercedes, the team where he had once considered joining the driver programme.

Joking about the mishap on their Twitter, the Red Bull account had said: “What year is it?” along with a picture of the ‘wrong’ graphic. The fact that this podium could have been the real thing in an alternate universe just makes the graphic even more hilarious.

Also Read: Max Verstappen named among the ‘losers’ after being outclassed by Charles Leclerc thrice in the Red Bull Ring

Also Read: “That was unnecessary,” Helmut Marko criticizes Sergio Perez for unwanted maneuver on George Russell