'Our main aim was to destabilise Verstappen'

Ferrari's strategic director, Iñaki Rueda, has revealed how the Italians outsmarted Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. Ferrari stuck to a specific plan.

In the sprint race on Saturday, Verstappen ran away with a convincing victory, but on Sunday the roles were reversed. Charles Leclerc overtook the Dutchman three times on the track and won the race. The Monegasque had his tyres under control, while Red Bull suffered from tyre degradation.

Ferrari forced Verstappen into an early stop by pressuring him in the opening laps of the race. As a result, his tyres deteriorated faster than those of the Ferrari drivers. The one-time world champion came in for new tyres on lap 13, so Ferrari's plan had worked.

Ferrari wanted to put Verstappen under pressure

"Our main aim for Sunday was to destabilise Verstappen. Our aim was to put pressure on Verstappen and persuade him to stop very early for a suboptimal two-stop race", Rueda says in the debrief video of Ferrari.

With his victory, Leclerc moves up to second place in the drivers' championship, 38 points behind his title rival. However, Ferrari still has reliability issues, but the team remains motivated to make the most of the last two races before the summer break. "Two more races to go before the summer break, we’re fully motivated to get the best possible result out of this.”