Max Verstappen finished second at the Austrian GP, just 1.6s away from race winner George Russell, and the four-time world champion was delighted to be in the hunt for victory “for the first time” in the 2026 F1 season.
The Red Bull driver finished over 40 seconds back from race winner Lewis Hamilton in the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, but the Dutchman and Red Bull bounced back with a huge upgrade package that allowed them to be a serious contenders for the win at the track that bares Red Bull’s name, putting Mercedes in an “uncomfortable” position, as Russell himself put it.
Verstappen: Fighting for the win at the Austrian GP was “satisfying”, and the “first time” he was in the mix in F1 2026
Verstappen was full of praise for Red Bull’s updated package this weekend at Austria, which allowed him to be in the mix for victory for the first time in the 2026 F1 season, as he chased Russell all the way home in a thrilling Austrian GP.
The Dutchman believes the performance, not the result, was the main “satisfying” factor coming out of the weekend, as even with a yet unidentified issue at the rear of his RB22 cropping up mid-race, he could still be in the fight:
“I think what was satisfying is that this was the first time [this year] I felt like actually I could fight for the win,” he said. “I do think that the first half of the race, we were more competitive.
“For whatever reason in the second half, something felt off on the rear of the car, where everything was just extremely difficult, from bumps, kerbs, traction, it was just completely gone.
“So that’s something that we need to understand again, what went wrong there.”
“Cool” battle with Hamilton cost Verstappen “quite a bit” of race time in 2026 F1 Austrian GP
One of the major highlights of the 2026 F1 Austrian GP was the epic wheel-to-wheel battle between Verstappen and his former title rival Lewis Hamilton, as the pair went toe-to-toe for several laps before the Dutchman eventually stole a march and pulled away from the seven-time champion.
Although he labelled that battle as “cool“, the four-time champion admitted it probably cost him “quite a bit” of race time, which could’ve been the difference between first and second, as he finished less than two seconds back from the winner.
“The first half [of the race], I felt really good. I mean, I was closing the gap even after the battles that I had with Lewis [Hamilton]. It was cool, but it made us of course lose quite a bit of time.
“So every time [I was] catching up. But then in the middle of the second stint, something happened with the car on the rear axle, which made me lose pace, and that just stayed there until the end. So that’s a bit of a shame.
“But still, to be that close to a win, I think is great effort from the team. They have worked really hard to get these upgrades on the car here, and this is the first time, I think, in the race, where I felt really competitive. And I could push a bit more. So that is definitely the positive, I think, of this weekend.”
Verstappen admits Red Bull’s offset strategy wasn’t ideal in hindsight
The Dutchman pitted six laps later than Russell for his second stop, creating an important tyre offset on a soaring hot day at the Red Bull Ring.
But crucially, the time he lost when he was on older tyres whilst Russell had already pitted proved too much for him to recover, even with a six-lap offset.
“It’s easy now to look back at it,” he said when asked about the strategy. “I do think I had the [better degradation] over George [Russell], but I also knew that it was going to be a very long stint to the end [from lap 43].
“But we’ll look at it again. I personally felt like the laps that I stayed out, I probably lost a little bit too much compared to what I gained back of those extra laps on new tyres, but it’s easy to say now.
“We still had a very good race, to be honest. It’s been a pretty long road to be here and actually to sit here in the top three and have a real shot at it, that is I think already very positive.”
Verstappen: Red Bull’s upgrades allowed a “very big step” in 2026 F1 Austrian GP
When asked to pinpoint where exactly Red Bull is still missing out compared to Mercedes even after such a raft of upgrades introduced this weekend, the Dutchman believes it’s now about small margins and sorting out some mechanical and technical troubles that held him back from potentially winning the race.
He’s also adamant that the upgrade is a “very bug step” and is the reason for the team’s incredible turnaround, as he was reminisced that just two weeks ago he was a whopping 40 seconds back from the win in Barcelona:
“Well, I started fifth. [And] I was closing the gap constantly, every stint. So, I don’t know, it’s hard.
“I mean, I was catching George, [but] Kimi [Antonelli] was catching me. It was close,” he said. “We still have some areas of course that we want to work on within the car. Like I said, half of the race I ran a car that was not in top shape.
“Plus, my brakes today were not really functioning well compared to the rest of the weekend. So that’s something that of course you manage and you learn how to drive with it, but it’s not ideal.
“So, it’s stuff that we’ll look back at and try to understand. But for us, this has already been a very big step forward compared to the previous races.
“I mean, look at the last race. In the race, I was just by myself, really not challenging anything. So on a track that the tyres are [degrading], that’s a good sign.”
