Max Verstappen says expectations for the Austrian Grand Prix are low after his car’s performance left him and he came in seventh place.
Red Bull took part in the home race in hopes of trying close to the front. It appeared to be a step behind McLaren during practice, but after appearing to be within a noticeable distance, Verstappen was unable to put together a clean lap as he grumbled at the lack of qualifying grip and placed 7th on the grid.
“I think it was already a lap yesterday and not good in the long run. FP3 was a little more positive today, but I was still off,” Verstappen said. “Then it all started to feel bad, basically. All the corners were a struggle. There was no balance. It was either understeer or oversteer.
“We don’t want to talk about upgrades because it wasn’t just the upgrade that caused all of this. All of a sudden, we really took a step back.
“We didn’t touch the car… Very small, tiny changes that should not affect the balance of the car. It’s all easy to manage, but suddenly, when the truck temps and the wind got longer, they fell apart.”
Given how the car is being treated and the regulations on PARC FERME limit setup changes, Verstappen believes he will be on a tough afternoon on Sundays.
“There’s not a lot of things (expected). I’m sure I won’t fight. Certainly. The hot conditions don’t help either. For this year, I’ve been less competitive in the race than qualifying. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.
“We didn’t expect anything worse in qualifying, but I don’t think anyone on the team did. That’s something we have to analyze.”