Verstappen: We’ll finish fourth or fifth in Austria with lack of pace

Max Verstappen has given a blunt prediction on how Red Bull could perform at its home round the Austrian Grand Prix next weekend as he accepts “we have work to do” to recover the pace deficit to its front-running rivals.

With Verstappen claiming fourth place from the fifth time in eight Formula 1 races, the Dutch driver accepts he maximised his Red Bull package at the French Grand Prix but was unable to match the pace of the dominant Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas plus Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen fears with a lack of cutting-edge upgrades, despite Honda delivering an updated power unit at the French round, Red Bull will remain unable to catch Mercedes and Ferrari without mistakes from either teams – including its home race at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.

“We’ll probably finish fourth or fifth, though that depends on Ferrari making mistakes. Maybe even third if both Ferraris make a mistake!” Verstappen said. “We’re just lacking pace at the moment, you have to accept that. In the meantime we keep working hard on the car and mostly the power unit, too.

“You can see Ferrari and Mercedes have made another step and Renault too, I think ours was just not big enough here so we have work to do.”

Having been heard over Red Bull team radio talking about ‘a magic throttle pedal’ during the French race, Verstappen explained it a reference to how he wasn’t able to match the lap times set by the drivers ahead of him which denied him a chance to fight for the podium at Circuit Paul Ricard.

“The team kept telling me about Mercedes and Ferrari lap times, but I told them I really couldn't go any quicker. I was trying everything I could,” he said.