Windsor on Verstappen and his longrun: "I think that said a million word"

Peter Windsor says it's not surprising the Ferrari's were less than a tenth slower than Max Verstappen in qualifying for the sprint race of the Austrian Grand Prix. The 70-year-old Briton says Red Bull Racing have already put more energy into the long runs, while Ferrari have gone all-in on qualifying.

"Well it was unbelievable, as both Ferraris did a 5-0, they both did laps that would or put what they were good enough to put on the pole. If Max then hadn't of gone even quicker but he did a 4.9. Really really good lap from Max, under pressure," judged Windsor in his new analysis on his YouTube channel.

In the first free practice session, most teams were focused on optimising the set-up for one lap. In fact, there was only one 60-minute free practice session before qualifying, so the race teams needed all the time they could get to the right qualifying speed. For Red Bull, however, this did not seem to be the case.

Verstappen was already doing long runs

Windsor notes that Verstappen was also already doing long runs in FP1. "Max is out there droning around doing his fuel tank runs, as early as FP1 so you can see that look at the consistency 11.1, 11.0, 11.4, 11.1, 10.8, 11.0, 11.1. Pretty impressive and that is knowing that there’s going to be qualifying in the afternoon for the sprint race."

Verstappen should feel super confident in his RB18 at the Red Bull Ring, Windsor reckons. Being busy with longruns already in the first free practice is a clear sign of that. "I think that said a million word to be honest about how he feels in the car and the condidence the car is giving him", says the analyst.

Ferrari logically close to Red Bull in qualifying

Ferrari have not yet been able to complete any race simulations in Spielberg. They only focused on the speed over one lap. That might also explain why the difference between the Red Bulls and F1-75 was so small in qualifying.

"So that respect it’s not real surprise to see how close the Ferraris are to the Red Bull because they have spent a lot of time getting the laps together whereas Max appears to be the normal thing for red bull these days. Get the car more or less balanced and then let’s get fuel in the car because this race again is going to be about tyre management and if it’s one-stop strategy, it’s going to be about elongating that first stint so a lot of really good work by Red Bull and Max this morning.”