Max Verstappen, Christian Horner considerate after F1 Austrian GP clash, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli explains wrong brake balance for the mistake.
After the yellow flag incident in F1 Austrian GP qualifying, Red Bull’s Verstappen was in a vulnerable position to start the Sunday’s race. He managed it well still but was eventually hit by Mercedes’ Antonelli at Turn 3, which ended their grand prix on Lap 1 itself.
It was a mistake from Antonelli going into Turn 3 where he was avoiding Liam Lawson on the inside, but eventually hit Verstappen. The Italian was wholly blamed for the incident, even though he tried to rectify it. He was handed a three-place grid drop for next weekend’s British GP.
Immediately after the incident, Antonelli raised his hands up and Verstappen was mostly considerate about it. Even after the race, the Dutchman spoke well of the Italian and his intentions. It ended a 31-race streak in points for the reigning champion, to round off a difficult Austrian weekend.
Team boss Horner echoed Verstappen’s sentiments. He acknowledged that Antonelli apologised for his actions, as the Italian went out of his way to speak with the Dutchman in the Red Bull motorhome. He put down the incident to wrong brake balance set-up to start the F1 grand prix.
He reckoned he should have put the balance more towards the front. It was a lesson that he learned and no matter how much planning one does, when things like these happens, it is hurtful. Team boss Toto Wolff backed the Italian and praised his handling of a genuine mistake.
What happened –
Verstappen: “We had a good start, so that was, I think, already a nice improvement – I think – from the last two races where I was not particularly happy with it. But in Turn 3, the race was over. Because at that point I didn’t know what happened. We had quite a bit of damage, the car nearly turned off. So 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 I guess in terms of pace and we have to try and analyse that and hopefully have a little bit of a more positive weekend next week.”
Antonelli: “It was very unfortunate. Probably I should have just changed the brake setting going into T3 because I had a normal start and I was just trying to maintain position. When I went to hit the brake, I locked the rear completely and I just lost the car. And when I lost the car, then obviously I was about to hit Lawson, because obviously I lost a lot of deceleration and then I had to avoid Lawson. And then, when I reapply the brake, I locked front left and just couldn’t stop the car.”
Horner: “Well that was a home race to forget. We got unlucky yesterday with the yellow flag that then puts us in a position where you’re unfortunately in the crash zone and Kimi just lost it in spectacular fashion up at Turn 3. I mean Max was basically through the corner and getting back on the power and just got wiped out, so an unfortunate mistake by Kimi. He’s apologised to Max but for us it killed our afternoon.
“I don’t think we’d have had the pace to race the McLaren’s, so well done to Lando. It was certainly entertaining, the first few laps between them. I think we’d have had the pace to race the Ferrari’s hard and George had no pace at all, so I think we would have been in that fight with the Ferraris. But when you’re out on Turn 3, there’s not much you can do about it. We just need to see what damage there is, hopefully it’s not too bad in terms of car quantities and so on for Silverstone.”
Wolff: “These mistakes happen. The rear is blocked on the car. I’m not entirely sure it was his fault or a system. I haven’t seen any data, nor did I hear anything, because obviously we were concentrating on the race. But that happens. It’s unfortunate for Max and Red Bull that Kimi hit him. But, you know, it’s racing.”
In the moment, spoke afterwards –
Verstappen: “I just asked what happened, because he was the only car that was there with me, with his wheel hanging off, so I’m pretty sure that he hit me. Then, of course, I saw the footage once I came back and it happens. I mean, every driver has made a mistake like that. Everyone has made a mistake like that in their careers. Kimi is a very big talent, so he’ll learn from that. I spoke to him already. I mean of course it is very nice. But for me, it was already case closed anyways, I saw what happened. No one does these things on purpose, it can happen.”
Antonelli: “I couldn’t hear what he said, but I apologise to him and I will try to talk to him after just to explain and to apologise once more. Just because I feel very sorry towards my team, because, obviously it’s a mistake from my side. But as well, I ended his race and this is definitely not what I want.”
Horner: “Well look, it was just unlucky. I mean of all the drivers, unfortunately it was just Max’s bad luck that he was the one that got collected, if he’d have collected the front runners, it would have been more advantageous but look it was a mistake, he’s a rookie, they’ve all done it. He’s apologised, he’s accepted it was his fault. Apology accepted. But very frustrating.”
Wolff: “Yeah, he came into the garage quickly. And I said, ‘well, that wasn’t great’, which he obviously knew. But, yeah, he said the tyres just blocked and we need to analyse that. But again, there’s margin for error in our business. It’s a shame that Max or that we took another car out with us. But that can happen. It can happen to the great ones, to the inexperienced ones, to the experienced ones. It’s just part of Formula 1. I don’t know whether he did that [meet Verstappen afterwards]. But these guys are kart kids. It’s a similar trajectory. And as a race driver, what happened, happened to everyone. And I think this is why there was no big animosity, I guess.”
Race weekend, fans –
Verstappen: “At the moment, not so much, just need to have a look at everything we did. Of course it is not what you want. At the end of the day, I am the most disappointed about it. But that’s racing as well, we have had a lot of great moments here, so probably we got a little bit spoilt with that as well. At the same time, ultimately it is racing, sometimes that’s the case.”
Antonelli: “It is important to score points in constructors and today I threw away points, especially because it is such a close fight with Ferrari.”
Lesson, what of brake balance –
Antonelli: “It’s definitely the first mistake I do in the race start and definitely it’s a big lesson. I just should have changed the brake setting and none of this would have happened. Just brake balance. Because obviously for a race start we have a brake balance set to avoid locking fronts, but obviously T3 it starts to be a strong braking even in Lap 1 and definitely the brake balance for that corner was too rearward and that was the rear locking. So I just should have changed the brake balance and put it a bit more forward and none of that would have happened, as I said. I think it’s a lesson for next time. I’ll try to come back stronger in Silverstone.
“Obviously you can expect anything in first season, you can have big highs and also big lows. The thing I want is to minimise these lows and want to be more consistent as possible. It is a mistake from my side, similar like one I did in Monaco, so I just need to reset and I try not to repeat the same mistake. Obviously, this was first time that happened to me, something like this, definitely for next time, I’ll know better how to react. You can plan all this scenarios but when the moment arrive, especially for the first time, you really don’t know how to react, so I just try in the moment to react the best way but it was not enough.”
Here’s the crash: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-austrian-grand-prix-antonelli-knocks-verstappen-out-of-the-race-on-lap-1.1836272513371164277
Here’s how F1 Austrian GP panned out