Red Bull regrets not warning Verstappen about Norris investigation at Austrian GP

Helmut Marko reckons Red Bull’s failure to warn Max Verstappen that Lando Norris faced a track limits investigation could have averted their 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix crash.

Verstappen and Norris collided in the closing stages of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, with the McLaren driver involved in a second collision after going off the track three times and receiving a black-and-white caution flag for track limits. Turn of the path 3.

This would later earn Norris a five-second time penalty, when F1 rules automatically issue a track limit warning, but before that the pair collided at Turn 3 – this time when Laine and Verstappen moved onto the McLaren driver as he hit the outside.

Speaking to Red Bull’s own TV channel, ServusTV post-race, Marco said: “The victory was lost due to many factors.

“The truth is [second Verstappen] The pitstop went wrong, resulting in the Lando slipping into the DRS window, and our assumption that harder tires would be the best choice in hot weather, turned out not to be the case.

“The temperatures were low, which meant that Landau had new tires in the last lap and we used them, which was also a factor.

“But I would say that both of them drove unnecessarily hard. We can be blamed for this: we know that there is an investigation going on against Lando with track limits.

“But we don’t know how he will be punished. So, you might look back and say: ‘Okay, let him go.’

“But let’s look on the bright side, we have extended our championship lead in the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship.”

Marco, Red Bull’s motorsport consultant, reckoned Verstappen locked up after his second stop and almost went on an out-lap, “all of which together made it possible” and allowed Norris to have a shot at victory. .

Verstappen controlled the race until then, his pace on the medium tires in the first stage much better than Norris’, before McLaren started wearing hearts in their second stint.

Marco considered their late fight to be “too big a battle at times” until it somehow degenerated into “who pushes who harder and who pushes more track limits, instead of focusing on a fair finish.”