Verstappen showed "champion" potential in Austria

Max Verstappen showed "champion's quality" at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull motorsport chief said that Verstappen's victory from fourth on the grid on Red Bull home soil proved that he had the maturity that many said he had been lacking earlier in the season.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Marko pointed to the start of 2018 when Verstappen's driving was being called into question and stated that his victory at the Red Bull Ring was the perfect response to his detractors.

“All these critics that were talking in the beginning of the year, he showed them that it was absolute rubbish.

“He had to nurse the tyres, and we also turned down the engine around mid-race, because of safety reasons and technical reasons.

"And he still managed to keep up this speed which was necessary to keep Raikkonen behind, and only three or four laps from the end, when it was three seconds, did we turn the engine up.

“He was so smooth, he controlled it, he never got any panicking whatsoever. It was like Barcelona (2016), a little bit."

Marko also noted that Verstappen had made silly mistakes earlier in the season but that it was behind him now and he was solely focused on the job at hand, his recent performances evidence of a more mature driver.

“He’s grown up. He punished himself very much, he could be battling for the championship. Sometimes there was bad luck, there were only two stupid accidents, one was Monte Carlo and the other one was in China with (Sebastian) Vettel.

“But at 20 years old to drive such a race, that shows what champion’s quality he has. He’s done three good races now, and all three were unbelievable.”