Really, the thing that went most wrong for Red Bull last Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix was its pre-race jetpack demonstration. After blasting at irritating volume around the track pointlessly wasting energy, one pilot lost control between the two final corners of the Red Bull Ring and wiped out on the course. But he was soon back on his feet and waving to the crowd.
Much the same could be said of Max Verstappen having to chase down and pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to take his fifth successive win. The Dutchman’s fifth victory at his team’s home track provided another homage to the late Dietrich Mateschitz and was sealed in front of the Red Bull co-founder’s son Mark and the company’s new marketer-in-chief Oliver Mintzlaff.
It may only have been a minor inconvenience to lose 10 seconds against Ferrari’s virtual safety car pitstop, but that situation for Verstappen actually made last Sunday’s event the most strategically interesting of any so far in 2023.
It started with Verstappen having to fend off Leclerc’s attentions at the start, a phase Leclerc made slightly harder for himself by leaving at least a full wheel rotation gap to his grid box front limit. Nevertheless, as both launched well, the Red Bull quickly chopped across the Ferrari’s bows to seal off the route to the inside of Turn 1. Leclerc stayed on it though, surging to Verstappen’s outside in an audacious move at the steeply uphill Turn 3 right. They came very close to contact as Verstappen shifted left, but Leclerc got through the exit without having to take to the run-off, having been allowed more
