Max Verstappen always expected Ferrari to be his biggest adversary during the Austrian GP - but not at the level they were.
Max Verstappen had always expected Ferrari to be his biggest adversary during the Austrian GP - but not at the level they were.
Verstappen had comfortably claimed victory in the short qualifying race at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday, which meant that he was the favorite to see the checkered flag first once again in the GP.
His race started well, as he held the lead at the start, but his early advantage was soon reduced when the Ferrari F1-75 proved faster than he expected.
Verstappen was powerless to stop eventual winner Charles Leclerc and came under increasing pressure from Carlos Sainz, who had a crash followed by fire in the Ferrari's UP, which relieved Verstappen of that pressure.
By virtue of his P2, Verstappen's lead in the drivers' championship remains very good, with the Dutchman now 38 points ahead of Leclerc.
However, Leclerc is apparently back in contention, given the pace he has displayed in the Ferrari, with even Verstappen being surprised by the Reds' speed.
"I expected them to be good, I just didn't expect them to be so strong," Verstappen admitted to reporters after the race. "And I think we were a little bit below what we expected."
Tire wear proved to be a major disadvantage for Verstappen during the race, with Red Bull's motorsport consultant Helmut Marko unsure what the cause of this was.
Reports suggest that the RB18 is currently around 10kgs overweight, which would have an obvious link to increased tire wear.
Verstappen admitted that the race proved to be more difficult than he expected, pointing in particular to these tire problems.
"It was a little bit harder than I expected," he said. "Basically, with any tire I had to fight hard for pace after a few laps. It's something I can't explain now, why the wear was so high, because I think we're usually okay with the tires. I expected it to be hard, but I didn't expect it to be like this."
"So it's just something we need to analyze and understand why that happened."
Still, losing only five points on the weekend to Leclerc on what could be considered an "off day" for Red Bull, Verstappen felt it was far from the worst case scenario.
"Even on a bad day, say an off day, losing only five points all weekend is still good," he said.