Max Verstappen admitted he was left disappointed after his Austrian GP 2025 ended on the first lap following a clash with Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli at Turn 3.
Early contact leaves Verstappen out of luck
Verstappen had started strongly, making progress off the line reaching P6, but was eliminated within moments after Antonelli collided with him in the braking zone. The contact left Verstappen’s Red Bull carrying heavy damage and forced him to park the car.
Speaking to the media after the race, the Red Bull driver said, “We had a good start. So that was, I think, already a nice improvement from the last two races where I was not particularly happy with it.” He continued with “But then, in Turn 3, the race was over. At that point I didn’t know what happened, but we had quite a bit of damage and the car nearly turned off.”
The Dutchman stressed he felt unlucky across the entire weekend after a tough qualifying left him further down the order than usual. “I guess unlucky a little bit yesterday in qualifying and unlucky today in the race. But, of course, if you look at the weekend, we were not where we wanted to be,” Verstappen admitted.
Verstappen on Antonelli: “Every driver makes mistakes”
After returning to the pits, Verstappen immediately sought to clarify what happened with Antonelli, even speaking to the Mercedes youngster after the race. Verstappen said, “I just asked what happened because he was the only car that was there with me with his wheel hanging off.”
He added, “I’m pretty sure that he hit me. And, yeah, then, of course, I saw the footage once I came back and it happens, you know. I mean, every driver has made a mistake like that.”
Verstappen’s calm approach underlined his respect for Antonelli even calling the Italian a “big talent” despite the costly incident, though the frustration was obvious after a huge weekend for his fans at the Red Bull Ring.
Red Bull looking to reset after tough weekend
The Austrian GP 2025 result leaves the reigning world champion with a mountain to climb with a sizable points deficit against McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Verstappen insisted, “I was never thinking about that anyway. We just take it race by race. And we try to just find more moments with the car, try to learn from all the things that we are doing and see what happens.”
With Silverstone up next, Verstappen was realistic about Red Bull’s prospects.
“When it comes to Silverstone, is the car going to be decent? It’s normally a bit better in the high, high speed,” he said. “But, I mean, it’s based on McLaren. I’m not saying that we are going to beat them in Silverstone.”
Verstappen: “We keep pushing”
Despite the heartbreak of the Austrian GP 2025, the Dutchman looked ahead with a calm and positive mind. He said, “I know that everyone in the team always gives 100%. And we keep pushing, keep learning, keep trying to bring more performance to the car. And that’s the only thing that we can do.”
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda also endured a difficult Austrian GP 2025, finishing in 16th and last place, nearly one lap down. He received a 10-second time penalty for a collision with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, and admitted to struggling with tyre degradation and pace. His result compounded Red Bull’s woes, with the team scoring zero points for the first time in 77 races.
After being in the headlines with interest from Toto Wolff and Mercedes, Verstappen must now leave the Austrian GP 2025 frustrations behind and come back stronger for the British Grand Prix next weekend.
