Red Bull's untypical issue that cost Verstappen in Austria — GP analysis

F1

Max Verstappen dominated the Saturday sprint race but was overtaken three times by Charles Leclerc in the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix. Mark Hughes explains what changed

Red Bull of Max Verstappen surrounded by the red and white colours of the Austrian flag

Grand Prix Photo

Mark Hughes

Charles Leclerc, having been robbed of four grand prix victories already his season, was understandably nervous as he led the last few laps driving around a throttle problem – and with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull catching him. But, lifting and coasting, requesting the downshifts early to compensate for the delay caused by the throttle not shutting off fully, Leclerc guided his compromised Ferrari to see the chequer still ahead.

Before that, when the car was working properly, he had overtaken the Red Bull three times on track. Which was an unusual pattern for a 2022 race. Around the Red Bull Ring, the Red Bull’s tyre degradation was just too heavy to compete with the Ferrari on the day. Which was curious because the day before, 23 laps on a single set of medium tyres in the Saturday sprint, Verstappen had dominated from pole.

“I expected it to be tough today, but I didn’t expect it to be like this”

“Basically on any tyre I was just struggling a lot for pace after a few laps, just a lot of deg,” said Verstappen afterwards. “It’s something I cannot really explain right now, why it was so high. Because I think normally we are quite okay on the tyres. And I expected it to be tough today, but I didn’t expect it to be like this. So it’s just something we need to analyse and understand why this happened today. But even on a bad day, let’s say an off day, to only lose five points over the whole weekend is I think still good.”

Often this year it has been the Ferrari which has suffered with its tyres when pushed too hard for too long against the Red Bull. But that has invariably been on tracks where the limitation is the front end. This, by contrast, is a rear-limited track – like Bahrain or Monaco. So the usual Ferrari race-day limitation wasn’t in place but that was made more apparent by the Red Bull’s untypical problem – it was just wearing through the rears too fast. The day before, in the sprint, the challenge had been one of thermal degradation of the rears. In the cooler conditions of Sunday and on a surface which had been washed clean by a morning rain shower, that ceased to be a problem. But the wear rate increased – and that seems to have caught the Red Bull out. Because it wasn’t only the Ferrari its deg looked bad against; it had the worst degradation of any car.

Charles Leclerc overtakes Max Verstappen in the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix

Leclerc passed Verstappen three times in the GP

Antonin Vincent / DPPI

Verstappen had set his first dry track pole of the season on Friday (Imola and Canada qualifying were wet). That was perhaps a function of Ferrari’s recent switch to a lower downforce standard rear wing (introduced on Leclerc’s car in Canada) which surrenders a little ultimate lap time in exchange for Red Bull-matching straight-line speed. In the sprint Verstappen set a hard pace from the off – so much so it caught Leclerc by surprise and he abandoned Ferrari’s initial plan to run aggressively in the sprint (after its tyre usage had looked good in Friday practice). Leclerc’s backing off caught team mate Carlos Sainz by surprise and they diced for a few laps, giving Verstappen a break. Leclerc was just coming back at the Red Bull by the end of the sprint’s 23 laps but not in a way which threatened the result.

Leclerc had taken encouragement from that but even he was surprised at how soon he was being held up by Verstappen in the main race. Max had got himself out of the DRS zone by the end of the second lap, but Leclerc was back in that zone a lap later – and past into the lead on the 12th lap. One lap later, as soon as there was a gap to drop into, Red Bull brought Verstappen in for new hard tyres. That was them on a very early two-stop strategy. Ferrari remained nominally on a one-stop with both cars, running 1-2 until their stops 12-13 laps later.

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Verstappen’s high-deg pattern was repeated on the hard tyres in stint 2 and when the Ferraris rejoined after their stop Leclerc was able to catch and pass the Red Bull for the second time. The fact that Leclerc did that rather than just sit behind and wait for Verstappen to pit, confirmed that Ferrari had opted to switch to a Red Bull-matching two-stop – but with much later stops and therefore always with the grip advantage to overtake on track whenever they lost position by pitting. So running 12 laps out of sync, Leclerc was able to pass Verstappen for a third time after his second stop. Sainz was about to do follow him through when his engine let got in the biggest way imaginable on the run down to Turn 4, the car pulling off with the rear end already in flames.

The VSC came out for a couple of laps while the situation was sorted, and both Leclerc and Verstappen – half a minute clear of third-placed Lewis Hamilton – took the opportunity to replace their hards for fresh mediums. It was upon the resumption of racing that Leclerc’s throttle problem began. Verstappen chased him down and set fastest lap along the way but Leclerc’s earlier margin at the VSC was enough of a cushion to see him through and he crossed the line 1.6sec ahead.

Mercedes’ third and fourth with Hamilton and George Russell confirmed the W13 as the third-quickest car but not as quick as it had looked on Friday. It was being driven beyond the edge in doing those times and both crashed out in Q3, Hamilton before having recorded a representative time. Running down among slower cars (he diced long with Mick Schumacher’s Haas in both races) but running a long first stint on Sunday, it was only as they pitted out of his way that he got the clear air to emerge ahead of the midfield.

George Russell pushes Sergio PErez off track at the 2022 Austrian GP

Contact on lap 1 was bad news for Russell, as well as Perez

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Russell’s race was compromised by front wing damage incurred on the first lap when he snagged Sergio Perez who was trying to go around his outside at Turn 4, spinning the Red Bull into the gravel trap. Not only did Russell receive a 5sec penalty for that, but it forced an earlier than ideal stop in order to change the nose. The stop, penalty included, cost him 20sec.

Esteban Ocon’s Alpine was best of the midfield in fifth but pushed hard for the accolade by the Haas of Schumacher, who was strong all weekend and finished two places ahead of team mate Kevin Magnussen, with Lando Norris’s McLaren between them.

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