Cooldown room reveals strategy insight: “Do you think it was the right choice?"
The podium trio came together in the cooldown room at the Red Bull Ring, after Verstappen won again to extend his dominance in the F1 standings.
The reigning champion said to Ferrari’s Leclerc, who was the runner-up: “When the Safety Car stopped, the tyres… were on the edge, every time, at every stint.”
Leclerc: “You didn’t stop?”
Verstappen: “No, I kept on going.”
Leclerc: “Do you think that was the right choice? The tyres were fine after that?”
Verstappen: “Erm… yeah. I mean, it was not fantastic. But it was not too much, in comparison. But the deg was still quite high.”
Leclerc: “More than what I expected, actually.”
Verstappen: “We could have also stopped. It would have been almost the same.”
Leclerc: “Yeah.”
The Ferrari driver then said: “Turn 3 was really tricky.”
Verstappen: “Slippery, huh?”
Leclerc: “Yeah, the rear, I was really struggling with.”
Verstappen: “You did medium, medium, hard?”
Leclerc: “Yes. The hard was not amazing, no. What did you finish on? Hards?”
Verstappen: “Hards.”
Leclerc: “You stopped more or less the same time that I did?”
Perez then entered, and Leclerc asked him: “I don’t remember when you stopped?”
Verstappen interjected: “Lap 21 or something.”
Perez: “Did you stop earlier?”
Leclerc: “Wait. You stopped on the hards, on Lap 21?”
“Verstappen: No, no. I did medium, hard, medium.”
Leclerc: “Oh, OK.”
Perez: “Oh, you were on the mediums?”
Verstappen: “Yes, we did the opposite.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
