Former Red Bull technician not surprised by 'gracious' Verstappen: 'We all helped him in the past'

Former Red Bull technician Calum Nicholas was not surprised by the four-time world champion's reaction after his collision with the young Mercedes driver.

On Lap 1 of the Austrian Grand Prix, the rookie locked his rear tyres up, and hit the RB21 of Verstappen.

Talking to GPblog among others after the race he also said, "It happens, I mean every driver has made a mistake like that, everyone has made a mistake I mean, it's of course very nice [Antonelli apologised], but for me it was already case closed anyway."

"Max was incredibly gracious and went and spoke to him. And I think that's typical of Max when he's dealing with people that like understand that they've made a mistake," Nicholas said about the Dutchman's reaction in the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

He continued with explaining that the Dutchman himself had a similar path in the past.

"Max understands that and he wants to be that person to help these young drivers do the same. So I think he handled it incredibly well. It's frustrating for everyone, but we just move forward. No losses, only lessons," he concluded about the incident.

The former Red Bull employee also expects the Austrians take each Grand Prix as they came, given Verstappen's 61-point gap to Oscar Piastri in the drivers' standings.

Still, he also has confidence in his former team. "We've had plenty [of bad weekends] over the years. One of the things I think the team is good at is bouncing back from those setback. How many times did we see Max's side of the garage have a bad weekend and then come back the next weekend and have a great one. Like I said, we move forward."