Max Verstappen Says Austria Qualifying Was 'Painful' As Mercedes Rumors Swirl
This is exactly what Red Bull didn't need
This week, Mercedes' George Russell let it slip that he was still waiting on a contract as the team continued to talk to Red Bull's four-time champ Max Verstappen, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the team is interested in bringing in the Dutchman.
That would be contingent on Red Bull continuing to struggle as Verstappen's contract is known to carry a team performance clause.
So, given all the buzz around the Verstappen-Mercedes connection, this weekend — at Austria's Red Bull Ring, Red Bull's home race — would be a bad time to continue that skid, but that's what happened on Saturday in qualifying.
The Red Bull RB21 has been a handful all season, and I remember thinking to myself when Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in Q1, "Oh, man; this could get ugly."
Sure, Tsunoda has struggled ever since he joined Red Bull earlier this year, but to have a big problem on a familiar track where the team has typically performed well?
Problem.
As rumors swirl about a potential move to Mercedes, Max Verstappen had a 'painful' qualifying. (Photo by Guenther Iby/SEPA.Media /Getty Images)
Verstappen has been able to drag that car to some decent results, but on Saturday, the best he could do was qualify P7 for Sunday's Grand Prix.
"Everything fell apart a bit," Verstappen said, per Formula1.com. "Every corner was a bit of a struggle to be honest. No balance, no front, no rear in different places of the corner, so that made it very difficult to get in a rhythm and a bit of a benchmark.
"Even with the final lap, of course I had a yellow, so I had to abort. It was still not even close to pole so that was quite a painful qualifying for us."
Yeah, nothing was going right, and now Verstappen will be on the back foot for the Grand Prix.
This is exactly what Red Bull didn't need with rumors swirling about Verstappen jumping ship and hopping in one of the Silver Arrows.