Helmut Marko acknowledges that Red Bull was not at its best operationally over the weekend in Austria. However, he believes the worst mistake was not informing Max Verstappen that he could let Lando Norris pass, as Norris was under investigation with an inevitable penalty for exceeding track limits.
“The victory was lost for several reasons,” explains the Austrian. “The fact that Verstappen’s second pit stop went badly, Norris slipped into the DRS window as a result, and also our assumption that hard tires would be the best choice in hot weather, which was not the case.”
“The temperatures were lower, which meant Norris had fresh tires in the last stint, and we had used ones, which was also a factor. But I would say both drivers drove unnecessarily too hard.”
“We may blame ourselves: we knew an investigation into track limits was underway. We knew Norris had crossed the lines too many times. We should have informed Max. I thought that action was completely unnecessary, and he could have simply finished behind him and won with Norris’s penalty.”