Technical updates: 2024 Austrian Grand Prix

McLaren has the most notable new parts of the front-running teams as a small number of upgrades have been introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix. Given the nature of the sprint weekend featuring just one practice session, and with some teams focusing …

McLaren has the most notable new parts of the front-running teams as a small number of upgrades have been introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Given the nature of the sprint weekend featuring just one practice session, and with some teams focusing on delivering upgrades a week ago in Spain, half of the grid have submitted no updates at the Red Bull Ring. That includes home team Red Bull, as well as Aston Martin, Alpine, Williams and Haas.

Of those to bring new parts, only McLaren lists more than one new component, as it has two areas working together, A new front wing and new front suspension work in conjunction, with the front wing geometry providing improved aerodynamic load, and the suspension then aiming to maximize the improved flow characteristics.

Mercedes has introduced a new beam wing that provides a reduction in drag, while Ferrari has added an extra cooling louver on its engine cover in anticipation of high temperatures across the weekend.

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RB continues its regular development with changes to the rear brake drum, revising the winglets that generate load and manage the flow at the back of the car, while Stake has the same update as Mercedes with a lower drag beam wing that reduces drag and improves aerodynamic efficiency.

Teams are not required to submit information about any parts that are of identical design, meaning components that have been manufactured out of a different material for weight-saving purposes are not publicly listed as upgrades.

Verstappen overcomes engine issue to lead Austrian GP practice

Max Verstappen topped the sole practice session of the sprint weekend Austrian Grand Prix despite an engine drama in his Red Bull Racing car briefly causing a mid-hour red flag. Verstappen’s session appeared over just after the hallway mark when his …

Max Verstappen topped the sole practice session of the sprint weekend Austrian Grand Prix despite an engine drama in his Red Bull Racing car briefly causing a mid-hour red flag.

Verstappen’s session appeared over just after the hallway mark when his car developed an engine fault after 16 laps of running. The car appeared to lose power exiting the penultimate corner, and it ground to a halt on the main straight, causing a brief red flag.

The Dutchman cannily allowed himself to roll backwards along the pit wall towards an access gate, where marshals were able to push him back into pit lane before the session resumed. With the car back in its garage, Red Bull Racing was able to restart the engine and clear the fault, and Verstappen was able to resume the session without losing any track time.

The problem mystified the Dutchman, with the only clues to the fault being a wide moment over the curbs at the first turn and then a differential switch change just before the problem cropped up, though it was unclear if either incident was related.

It will be concerning to the team, driver and power unit manufacturer Honda, however, with a grid penalty already likely for a failure during practice for the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this month. The delay ultimately caused him no trouble, however, and he went on to set the benchmark at 1m05.685s.

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Oscar Piastri pushed him closest for McLaren, the Australian lapping 0.276s slower than the Dutchman. Lando Norris would likely have joined them battling for the top two places, but the Briton botched his single flying lap on fresh softs after setting a tantalizing purple first sector, understeering through the downhill Turn 4 and sailing through the gravel.

The error came too late in the session for the Miami Grand Prix winner to regroup, leaving him down in 13th. Norris had earlier reported a steering abnormality, with right-hand turns feeling heavier than lefts.

Ferrari started the weekend with third and fourth for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, 0.37s and 0.443s off the pace respectively, but both look vulnerable to Lewis Hamilton behind. The Mercedes driver was 0.569s off the pace but used the hard tire to set his best time much earlier in the session, hinting at considerably more performance to come.

Esteban Ocon was sixth for Alpine ahead of Lance Stroll and George Russell, the last-named likewise using only the hard tire in the second Mercedes.

Yuki Tsunoda was ninth in a mixed-specification RB car. The Italian team has equipped both Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo — the Australian finished 16th — with a combination of new parts, bits from the Spanish Grand Prix upgrade and components predating Barcelona in a bid to diagnose its downturn in form last weekend. Tsunoda ended the hour 0.894s off the pace, with Ricciardo a further 0.383s back.

Fernando Alonso completed thet top 10 ahead of Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez and the stricken Norris.

Zhou Guanyu led Sauber teammate Valtteri Bottas in 14th and 15th ahead of Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant at the rear of the field.

 

Racing on TV, June 27-30

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Thursday, June 27 Mid-Ohio TA2 8:00-9:00pm (D) Mid-Ohio TA 9:00-10:00pm (D) Friday, June 28 Austrian GP practice 1 6:25-7:30am Austrian GP sprint qualifying 10:25- 11:30am Nashville qualifying …

All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.


Thursday, June 27

Mid-Ohio
TA2
8:00-9:00pm
(D)

Mid-Ohio
TA
9:00-10:00pm
(D)

Friday, June 28

Austrian GP
practice 1
6:25-7:30am

Austrian GP
sprint
qualifying
10:25-
11:30am

Nashville
qualifying
4:30-6:00pm

Nashville 8:00-8:30pm
pre-race
8:30-10:30pm
race

Saturday, June 29

Austrian GP
sprint
5:55-7:00am

Austrian GP
qualifying
9:55-11:00am

Watkins Glen 11:00am-
1:00pm (D)

Portland
qualifying 1
12:30pm

Nashville
qualifying
12:00-1:30pm

Southwick 1:00pm

Nashville
qualifying
2:00-4:00pm

Portland
race 1
4:00pm

Road
America TA2
4:00-6:00pm
(SDD, live on
MAVTV
Select)

Nashville 4:30-5:00pm
pre-race
5:00-8:00pm
race

Shelton race 1 6:00-7:00pm

Michigan 10:00pm-
12:00am
(SDD)

Sunday, June 30

Austrian GP 7:30-8:55am
pre-race
8:55-11:00am
race

Watkins Glen 12:00-1:00pm
(D)

Portland
qualifying 2
12:30pm

Road
America TA
1:00-3:00pm

Norwalk
qualifying
2:00-4:00pm
(D)

Nashville 3:30-7:30pm

Norwalk
Finals 1
4:00-5:00pm
(SDD)

Portland
race 2
4:00pm

Norwalk
Finals 2
5:00-7:00pm
(SDD)

Shelton race 2 6:00-7:00pm

Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Replay

MotoGP is now airing live on TruTV and Max’s B/R Sports Add-On. Check your streaming provider for air times

A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:

Rethinking F1’s track limits conundrum

I know it’s Wednesday, but there are still some people who will have turned off their televisions having watched the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday and thought they knew the race result. It was over 90 minutes later that Aston Martin’s protest …

I know it’s Wednesday, but there are still some people who will have turned off their televisions having watched the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday and thought they knew the race result.

It was over 90 minutes later that Aston Martin’s protest dropped and was soon followed by an admission from the FIA that it was working through a number of incidents that ran into the thousands when it came to potential track limits infringements, and that some had been missed that would mean the race classification would need to be altered.

Over five hours after the checkered flag, we finally had an official result. For some that will have been so long after they disconnected from the race that they’re probably still not aware it changed. And yet I don’t blame the FIA.

The governing body had previously made it clear to the race organizers that it felt gravel traps were needed on the exits of Turn 9 and Turn 10 to avoid track limits issues. But those requests went unfulfilled and the end result was a race such as Sunday’s.

Gravel traps are most effective in defining track limits for F1 cars, but installing them can cause problems for tracks with other series – or non-racing revenue streams. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

You may well have read many of the arguments against making such a change before. The main one is due to the fact that MotoGP also races on the Red Bull Ring, and doesn’t want gravel traps in those areas. Often the topic of track days comes into it too, with circuits needing to recoup revenue from such events and everyday drivers not wanting to have to pay to drag their potentially-damaged car out of a gravel trap for what could have been a small error.

Asphalt run-offs are far more forgiving and less penalizing. Great for you and I if we run out of talent in our road car, not so great for the series that claims to be the pinnacle of motorsport.

Quite clearly, it’s not a situation that can be repeated. The Red Bull Ring is a great track but that is its one major flaw that led to 83 deleted lap times on Sunday and the resulting penalties, with drivers reporting each other throughout the race.

“I think they probably need to find a new solution for this track,” Lewis Hamilton said on the topic. “I mean, years ago when we didn’t have the track limit thing the track was much more enjoyable to drive, but it’s strange to be driving and almost have to comment on the car ahead as that’s what the team ask you to do. I think I did it in Austin a few years ago, and that’s not racing, right? That’s not motorsport and not racing.”

I very much subscribed to the approach of “just go slower” through a corner if you really can’t afford another track limits violation, but as many drivers pointed out in a race situation there are so many laps that a badly timed gust of wind on aging tires when fighting another car can be all that is required to trigger a penalty, and it would be so much better if that penalty was a clear and instantaneous one such as gravel.

And where my (very F1-focused, I admit) head is now going, is towards a more hard-line approach from the sport and the FIA.

There is far more to racing than F1, but there is far more to golf than the Masters and nobody is making Augusta more playable to beginners in order to try and make money out of them, or adding foot golf holes at Amen Corner.

Surely the time has come for racing circuits that are used for Formula 1 to have to adhere to certain standards and demands regardless of the other categories they want to run. At some point, there has to be a hierarchy because one-size-fits-all rarely works, and you end up with everyone having to compromise to the detriment of each series.

We shouldn’t be having a discussion where an F1 race is negatively impacted by the desire to keep a different racing category happy, even one as incredible and as high-level as MotoGP. It just isn’t feasible for such a massive international sporting championship to be limited by such factors anymore.

So it should be written into contracts that F1 host circuits will make required changes when it is formally requested of them by the FIA. Of course there can be caveats — I’m not here to put any venue in financial difficulty — and the details of the process would be far more complex than that top line, but I’d argue we have now got to be at the point where existing racetracks have to be responsive to the demands of F1 first and foremost, given the size of the audience and fanbase.

Those latter aspects certainly mean the money’s there, even if it means F1 has to adjust its fee demands for the period when circuits are making changes at its request.

I can already hear the opposition from fans of other types of racing, but my point is the line has to be drawn somewhere. Given the hosting fees and lucrative nature of holding a grand prix, it’s hard to argue against F1 being the series that circuits have to work to primarily accommodate, in the case that a solution that benefits everyone can’t be found. In reality, it’s going to be rare that other car racing categories will be negatively impacted by that benchmark.

At present, there’s not a solution that benefits everyone in Austria but changes that would work for F1 haven’t been made in order to not make life more difficult for the circuit’s other revenue streams. Sunday feels like it could be the catalyst for the FIA to demand they are, and F1 itself should be giving the governing body greater power based on the terms it puts into its race hosting contracts.

If a circuit can’t make it work for both bikes and cars, then pick one to focus on. Whether you deem MotoGP or World Superbikes as the top level of motorcycle racing, they should also want circuits perfectly tailored to what they need. At many tracks it is possible to accommodate both properly, but in some cases that might mean separate venues.

We’re talking about the highest levels of racing. They need the highest levels of commitment from the tracks too.

Ferrari ‘going in the right direction’ despite missed double podium – Vasseur

Ferrari’s strategy might have cost it a double podium opportunity in the Austrian Grand Prix but it is making progress against its rivals, according to Fred Vasseur. Charles Leclerc finished second to Max Verstappen on Sunday but Carlos Sainz was …

Ferrari’s strategy might have cost it a double podium opportunity in the Austrian Grand Prix but it is making progress against its rivals, according to Fred Vasseur.

Charles Leclerc finished second to Max Verstappen on Sunday but Carlos Sainz was shadowing his teammate for the first stint before both cars were brought into the pits under an early Virtual Safety Car. Two slow stops resulted in Sainz losing time and track position, later picking up track limits penalties that demoted him from fourth – after a thrilling podium fight with Sergio Perez – to sixth.

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“Probably yes, he was not far away from the (pace) of Charles,” Vasseur said of Sainz’s chance of a podium. “We need to have a look on the strategy if it was a good one. I think it was a good one for the pit wall. For sure they brought out the VSC 10 meters too late for us, because we were already on the white line, and (ended it) 10 meters too early because we are still into the pit lane. But we cannot predict when they remove the Safety Car or VSC. It is like it is.

“We have to be focused, everybody has to be focused on ourselves. We are doing a good job together with the team, the drivers. We are going in the right direction. I want to keep this going.

“For (Silverstone) I don’t know, it’s so tight. I don’t want to speak about Max, but in our group with Mercedes and Aston, you never know before the weekend who will be in a good position. With Max, there is still a gap. It means that we have to continue to develop the car and push. But what is positive for us is that we’re going into the right direction, compared to Montreal, we are going in the right direction. We have to continue like this and continue the development.”

Despite back-to-back races where Ferrari has shown improved pace on Sundays, Vasseur is still not convinced it is a trend that will continue for the rest of the season.

“I don’t know. It’s true that Canada was a very strong one in terms of race pace, and we were waiting for Spielberg because it’s a bit different compared to the other track layout and tarmac, and it was a good confirmation this weekend.

“But it’s a never-ending project, never-ending discussion each week that teams are bringing upgrades, pushing… We have different tarmacs, different layouts – next weekend will be a completely different one, and we have to continue to develop the car to give to the drivers a better quality.”

McLaren step ‘better than I was expecting’ – Norris

Lando Norris admits his fourth place in the Austrian Grand Prix was a surprise because his updated McLaren was quick enough to beat both Aston Martins. McLaren brought the biggest part of a three-race upgrade period to the Red Bull Ring, with only …

Lando Norris admits his fourth place in the Austrian Grand Prix was a surprise because his updated McLaren was quick enough to beat both Aston Martins.

McLaren brought the biggest part of a three-race upgrade period to the Red Bull Ring, with only Norris receiving it due to the manufacturing deadlines. He duly qualified in the top four and then overtook Lewis Hamilton before holding off Fernando Alonso’s late charge to finish best of the rest behind the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers, being promoted to fourth by a post-race penalty for Carlos Sainz.

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“I think being quick on this track helps, the quicker you are here the better it is on tires in a way because we’re very quick in the high-speed corners and that’s where you do a lot of the degradation here,” Norris said. “I was a bit nervous coming into the race really, honestly, that the race pace was going to let us down a lot but actually it was better than I was expecting, which is a good surprise.

“Still, I say not great, like Fernando was clearly quicker at the end by quite a chunk every lap and I was like almost crashing in every corner, but P5 shows we’ve taken a good step forward so I’m happy with that.

“Maybe not (surprised to beat) Mercedes, they didn’t look good all weekend, so to Mercedes no. Which is a nice thing to say. Did I expect to be quicker than Astons? I’d probably say no. they’ve also not looked super quick on one lap all weekend but usually their race pace is strong and it was, but we were just quick enough and could build up enough of a gap early in the stint that he didn’t catch up at the end to get past me. Pros and cons.”

Despite the strong result and Driver of the Day recognition after fights with Sainz too, Norris says the fact he was struggling with his car’s handling late on shows there are inherent issues that need fixing.

“You just go to the limit of what the car can do on the next level. The car just goes quicker around every corner but the way you have to drive it is exactly the same, which I guess is our next issue to tackle, things we’ve been complaining about all year are the same, we just are at a higher level. 

“So I feel like I can be more confident if we can really tackle these issues, I feel like they’re really letting us down a lot at the moment, it’s not just about downforce, it’s handling and how you drive the car, not just put a load more downforce on and then try and send it. There are more technical things we need to try and tackle and understand, when we do that I’m definitely confident we can fight the quicker cars ahead of us.”

Setup woes to blame for track limits violations – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says his track limits penalties in the Austrian Grand Prix were a result of a poor setup choice pre-race that hurt his car’s handling. The seven-time world champion was the first of multiple drivers to pick up a penalty for exceeding …

Lewis Hamilton says his track limits penalties in the Austrian Grand Prix were a result of a poor setup choice pre-race that hurt his car’s handling.

The seven-time world champion was the first of multiple drivers to pick up a penalty for exceeding track limits, going off four times in the final sector to pick up a five-second time penalty by lap 16 of the race. At the time Hamilton said his Mercedes wouldn’t turn and says it was due to the with a set-up choice that the team had locked in for the start of the race.

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“We knew we had a really bad rear end here, so we took out a lot of front wing so that we could go long,” Hamilton said. “Massively under did it, and I was like almost full lock round the last two corners – Turn 10 was just sliding and I couldn’t do anything about it. Through the stops we then added a lot of wing and the car started to slowly come back to at least getting round and staying on the track.”

Hamilton faded from running fourth early on to finish seventh on the road behind Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso, before a further post-race track limits penalty demoted him to eighth, and admits he was more hopeful about how competitive Mercedes would be at the Red Bull Ring.

“It was definitely different compared to the last two races, last two races felt way way better than (Sunday), but in terms of characteristics of the car it’s fundamentally the same.

“Yeah, definitely didn’t expect to be as bad as we were, I don’t really have an answer for it really. It’s definitely surprising, the feeling of the car was very much the same I had all last year, so in that respect not the biggest surprise.”

And Hamilton also wants to see the FIA’s recommendation for gravel traps to be installed at Turn 9 and Turn 10 followed up, after being frustrated by the need to report other drivers exceeding track limits.

“I think they probably need to find a new solution for this track. I mean years ago when we didn’t have the track limit thing the track was much more enjoyable to drive, but it’s strange to be driving and almost have to comment on the car ahead as that’s what the team ask you to do. I think I did it in Austin, a few years ago, and that’s not racing, right?

“(Lando Norris) was going off so much it was insane. As soon as he got passed me he went off at least 10 times, so did (Sergio) Perez, he was Turn 9, Turn 10, didn’t get a penalty. That’s obviously… you should be able to go off and none of us get a penalty.”

American Jak Crawford gets first F2 race victory in Austria

Jak Crawford came home a winner for the first time in FIA Formula 2 competition, with the 18-year-old rookie from Texas capturing Saturday’s Sprint Race at the home race for sponsor Red Bull. He then backed it up with a big drive in the feature race …

Jak Crawford came home a winner for the first time in FIA Formula 2 competition, with the 18-year-old rookie from Texas capturing Saturday’s Sprint Race at the home race for sponsor Red Bull. He then backed it up with a big drive in the feature race to score his season-best feature race result.

The Red Bull Racing Junior started from the pole and dominated the 27-lap Saturday Sprint for Hitech Pulse-Eight Racing. On Sunday, an alternate tire strategy led the Red Bull Junior rookie driver to an eighth-place finish in the Feature, gaining seven positions over the final eight laps.

The seventh event of the campaign opened the busiest stretch of the season for the Formula One hopeful, with F2 set to stage four two-race weekends during the month of July as Crawford opened the month with a big weekend.

Red Bull Content Pool

“It was my best F2 weekend so far, a pretty crazy weekend,” Crawford said. “It was pretty cool to hear the National Anthem at the podium, especially in Formula 2. It was a great race, and I’m so happy with the results. The Red Bull people are happy – I did a lot of stuff with them after the race and it was quite fun.”

After what seemed like a slow start to the weekend as Crawford 19th of 22 drivers in the lone practice, the young American still came away happy from the session.

“I had lap times deleted (due to exceeding track limits), so my lap time wasn’t really representative,” he explained. “I was in the top five for most of practice, so I was actually pretty happy with the practice.”

Qualifying was more difficult, but the results were better. Crawford timed in 10th fastest, good enough to put him on the pole position for the Sprint Race’s inverted grid for the second time this season. It was his sixth-consecutive top-10 qualifying result.

“Qualifying was tough, and it was really close as well,” Crawford said. “I think we missed the setup a tiny bit, and we ended up in 10th. I think we could have had more, but it was super tight.”

Rain an hour before the event soaked the circuit. With a light drizzle nearing the start, competitors were faced with the choice of going with rain tires or gambling with slicks to tackle the damp 10-turn circuit.

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Crawford started on slicks. While he got off to a great jump at lights-out, he was sixth and struggling by the end of the opening lap. The conditions led to two early safety car interventions. He managed to get up to second between the cautions, and took the lead when the driver in front opted to pit for slick tires. When racing resumed, Crawford again got a great start and built up a gap of more than one second – preventing his rivals from gaining a DRS advantage. From that point, he managed the gap and led the final 22 laps for his maiden F2 victory.

Red Bull Content Pool

“It was a bit of an unknown going into the Sprint Race,” he said. “We had to do what was best for the future, and in the end, it all worked out like we planned. It was a smooth race. The track was very wet at the start, it was hard to get temperature (into the tires]. Considering the conditions, I had a really good start and managed to keep the lead for two corners. Despite all that, everyone knew that in the end, slicks would be better. Once I got the lead, I was just taking it easy, trying not to get any track limits penalties, and making sure the gap was not coming down.”

Sunday, Crawford started 10th in the 40-lap Feature Race but got bumped and fell back on the opening lap. Starting on harder-compound tires, he was up to sixth by lap 11 as drivers began switching to the alternate tire.

“I had an incident at the start of the race,” he explained. “I was fighting for seventh place going into turn one and I fell all the way back to 17th. I was using the tires up trying to get back up. But near the end, there was a safety car that allowed me to put on my good tires, and I was able to come back through the pack and score some points.”

Red Bull Content Pool

Halfway through his rookie F2 campaign, Crawford moved up to 13th in the standings with 38 points. He now has four podiums – all in Sprint Races – and seven points-paying finishes.

“Obviously, we still have a bit of work to do,” he said. “I feel we have more to come in the Feature Races. We need to work on qualifying time and making sure we score big in the Feature Race, but we’ve done a lot of work over the break and we made a big improvement.”

Next up is the British Silverstone circuit. After a weekend off, F2 has back-to-back weekends, in Budapest July 22-23 and Spa July 29-30.

“Silverstone is a bit of a home race for Hitech and I,” Crawford said. “I’m really looking forward to that track. It has a lot of high-speed corners; it’s really tough on tires, and I’m looking forward to being there for the first time in a Formula 2 car.”

Ferrari ‘pushing like I’ve never seen before’ with upgrades – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Scuderia Ferrari has been pushing like he’s “never seen before” to improve its car and was rewarded with second place in the Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc missed out on pole position by just 0.048s on Friday, but endured a tough …

Charles Leclerc says Scuderia Ferrari has been pushing like he’s “never seen before” to improve its car and was rewarded with second place in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Leclerc missed out on pole position by just 0.048s on Friday, but endured a tough Sprint after struggling in wet conditions at the Red Bull Ring. In the main race, however, Leclerc led a number of laps due to Ferrari’s strategy of stopping during an early Virtual Safety Car and he says the car is feeling much improved even if there is a long way to go to catch Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

“It feels good to be back on the podium, especially after what was a very difficult day yesterday,” Leclerc said. “I had a really good feeling in the car on Friday. I think with the new upgrades, the feeling is getting there, and we were really waiting for this race in order to confirm the good feelings that we had on Friday, and it worked out.

“No secrets, we need to still work extremely hard to catch Red Bull, (who) are still quite a lot faster come race day. But the feeling is better, and the team is pushing like I’ve never seen before in terms of bringing the upgrades much earlier than what was planned. This is great to see.”

Despite securing his best result of the season so far, Leclerc also believes his Ferrari wasn’t perfectly set-up for Sunday’s race and has more to come.

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“Overall, we had a more consistent car today, which was good to see,” he said. “I feel like maybe with these sprint weekends, it’s a bit more unpredictable, less preparation you have, and maybe I was a bit out of the window in terms of setup for this race. I had the rear stepping out a bit too much, and struggling with rear degradation. But on the second and last stint, it was a little bit better as I modified my driving. Maybe we left a bit more of performance there.”

While the Monegasque has fought hard with Verstappen in the past — including at the Red Bull Ring — Leclerc says he didn’t try too hard to keep him behind while leading as they approached the halfway point in the race, given the pace differential between the two cars.

“At that point I knew it was a matter of time. Max had much fresher tires. They are also quicker whenever we have the same tires, so it’s not like I tried to push like crazy. I knew it was crucial to lose as little time as possible in this battle, and this is why I haven’t been as aggressive as I’ve been in other times when we were fighting for real positions whereas this one was a bit difficult.

“If he wouldn’t have overtaken me into Turn 4, it was the lap after, and I would have lost more time for my race, so it wouldn’t have benefitted me in any way.”

Austrian superiority down to ‘smooth’ teamwork – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says the way his weekend panned out at the Austrian Grand Prix was unexpected after he dominated both the sprint and main race on Sunday. Red Bull has won every race so far but saw Ferrari take pole position at the previous sprint in …

Max Verstappen says the way his weekend panned out at the Austrian Grand Prix was unexpected after he dominated both the sprint and main race on Sunday.

Red Bull has won every race so far but saw Ferrari take pole position at the previous sprint in Azerbaijan and then Verstappen win by his smallest margin in Canada last time out. With changeable conditions all weekend at the Red Bull Ring there were a number of hurdles but Verstappen took pole position twice and won both races, adding the fastest lap for maximum points.

“It’s been a really incredible weekend, something I didn’t expect,” Verstappen said. “With the sprint format, it’s normally a bit more chaotic to get on top of everything. But I think we did everything well as a team today with the strategy, the pit stops — everything was smooth. Out there on the track, we just had a very quick car and I felt comfortable in the car. And we could do everything we wanted like we planned it.”

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The only thing Verstappen admits was unplanned was his late pit stop for soft tires to set the fastest lap on the final lap, only starting that attempt with a two-second lead over Charles Leclerc.

“To me, not (a risk), but to the team, I think they were a little bit more nervous. I saw the gap, and I was like, ‘We have to pit.’ I want to go for the fastest lap when you have the opportunity, and that’s what we did at the end … From the outside, maybe it looks like a big risk. But in the car for me, it didn’t feel like a risk at all.”

Verstappen says the 24-second advantage he had before that late pit stop shows he was right in refuting that Red Bull’s rivals had closed the gap in Montreal two weeks ago.

“Exactly, I loved all the articles about it! Some weekends they work a bit better for you, some don’t,” he said. “For me, Montreal wasn’t that fantastic in the race from our side, and here, I think we did a really good job. Naturally, the gap is a bit bigger.”