Max Verstappen admits his mistake on the vibrators

It is often said that the shoemaker’s children are the worst shod or that no one is a prophet in their own country. Red Bull is a perfect example of this in Austria. Indeed, while the Spielberg circuit is now called the Red Bull Ring, the team’s best result here in two editions remains Daniil Kvyat’s ninth place in 2015.

However, this season seems to be off to a better start as Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth in both sessions this Friday, which can only make him happy: “It’s a track where we’ve struggled a bit in the past, but I felt comfortable from the first lap. I think we more or less know where we stand, and we won’t be staying up until midnight to find a good setup. We’re quite close, which is a good start.”

If the day of the Australian went smoothly, Max Verstappen once again made a mistake during the first practice session. By driving over a curb, he broke his suspension, which sent him into a gravel trap. Although he had previously complained that they were too high for his liking, upon reflection, he acknowledged that it’s up to him to avoid them: “The curbs are quite high and can cause damage as we’ve seen. But it’s up to us to avoid them and respect the track limits. I didn’t know they would be so tough on the car. Maybe a long curb would have been better than several small ones.”

This error had a significant impact as it caused him to miss the end of the first session and the beginning of the second, which was moreover marked by a torrential downpour: « The first session was shorter than I wanted. We lost a bit of time as well as at the beginning of the second. The car wasn’t completely ready due to the damage we sustained during the first session, and this set us back a bit. »

He nevertheless managed to set the 7th fastest time in the second session. He even hopes it will rain for the rest of the weekend because his car’s performance in these conditions was good.

From our special correspondent in Spielberg