F1 News: Max Verstappen Angry - Car 'Just Undriveable'

Max Verstappen expresses frustration over a series of errors by Red Bull during the Austrian Grand Prix.

Jun 9, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen (NED) races during the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports / David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports

At this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix held at the Red Bull Ring, an array of missteps by Red Bull Racing severely hampered three-time world champion Max Verstappen’s run, resulting in a disappointing fifth-place finish. Only adding to the woes, Verstappen described his RB20 as "just undriveable."

Verstappen, initially set for a likely victory, his a metaphorical roadblock as a crucially slow second pit stop hampered his efforts at the front of the pack. This error threw him into direct competition with McLaren's Lando Norris. The tense on-track battle culminated in a collision on lap 64 at Turn 3, causing both drivers to suffer punctures. Norris ultimately retired from the race and Verstappen was lost his strong lead, and this saw George Russell of Mercedes seizing the opportunity, clinching an unexpected win.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with his team's performance this Sunday, Verstappen voiced multiple annoyances with the team’s strategy and execution.

“The first stint was quite good, then at the end of that I caught quite a bit of traffic - which we should have just boxed [to avoid] because I gave up free lap time. We basically did a lot of things wrong today. Firstly, it started with the strategy, then the pitstops were a disaster.

"Firstly, it started with the strategy, then the pitstops were a disaster,” he lamented. The racer criticized the team's timing of his pit stop, which led to him navigating through traffic and unnecessarily losing precious time. "The first one was already bad, the second was even more of a disaster. And then of course you give free lap time. There’s seconds you give away, six seconds over those two pitstops," Verstappen added.

The frustration didn't end at the pit stops. Verstappen narrated the shift in his car's behavior from "an OK balance in the first stint" to an "undriveable behavior" thereafter, which he found baffling and indicative of underlying issues.

"Suddenly the car just transformed from an OK balance in the first stint to just undriveable behavior afterwards, which normally indicates that something was also wrong," he explained.

Despite the challenges, Verstappen maintained that victory was within grasp had it not been for the compounded errors. "But even with that, we should have won today if we didn’t make so many errors as well with the pitstops."

Reflecting on the day's overall performance, he was unequivocally critical:

“We did everything wrong that we could have done wrong. Yes, because today’s just been awful. Everything has been wrong. I’m complaining about the tires, we didn't pit. I was stuck in traffic, bad execution with the pitstops. So everything just went wrong,” Verstappen concluded.