CHRISTIAN HORNER MAKES FEELINGS CLEAR AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN'S RED BULL 'DISASTER' VERDICT

Red Bull chief Christian Horner has admitted "hindsight is a wonderful thing" after Max Verstappen hit out at his team in the aftermath of the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen was denied victory in Spielberg following a crash with McLaren star Lando Norris in the closing stages and later labelled Red Bull's pit stops as a "disaster".

Verstappen led for much of the Grand Prix after securing victory in Saturday's Sprint race. But with eight laps remaining, he banged wheels with Norris as the Briton attempted to overtake.

Both drivers suffered a puncture, with Norris forced to retire from the race before Verstappen eventually secured a fifth-place finish.

After the showdown, Verstappen claimed "we did a lot of stuff wrong" and said "we could definitely have had a different race if we'd executed the race a lot better."

But Horner dismissed the Dutchman's comments as he later told reporters: "You've spoken to him when he's just had a tough race.

"I think with the strategy for us, we were going into the race looking at medium-hard-hard [tyres]. And if you look, what I think he's talking about is the point at which we stopped, at the second stop because we extended to cover Norris.

"Whilst we were quicker than Norris, it makes sense to do that because, [if] you get unlucky with a Safety Car, you lose track position. So therefore, whilst we had the pace on Lando and were able to be maintaining and pulling a gap, sometimes tactically it makes sense to do that.

"Probably we would have been better off with a new medium versus the new hard, but you know, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

"Look, the pace of the car has been very strong this weekend. We've had two poles, he's led all but nine laps of the race, the Sprint race yesterday, he's extended his lead in the championship, we've extended our lead I think in the Constructors' Championship. So despite not getting the win, it's not been totally disastrous."

Verstappen ended the weekend 81 points ahead of Norris at the top of the F1 Drivers' Championship standings and is still on course to claim a fourth consecutive title.

But following his disappointment in Austria, the 26-year-old said: "From our side we have to look at the whole race because I think we did a lot of stuff wrong. We had two very poor pit stops which basically put us back, and that's why we were fighting to the end because we had a very healthy lead.

"We could definitely have had a different race if we'd executed the race a lot better, so there's definitely a few things to look at and do better for next week."

2024-07-02T11:32:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd