“Ferrari beat Red Bull in a straight fight” - Former F1 champion says the Scuderia’s hard work in finding straight-line speed is apparent

Former two-time F1 champion Mika Hakkinen was all praise for Ferrari. He applauded the Italian squad for beating Red Bull in a straight fight at the F1 Austrian GP. The Finn talked about how the Italian squad was able to close the gap and turn things around in Spielberg. Moreover, doing so despite usually suffering from a deficit in straight-line speed against Red Bull.

Hakkinen said:

“Ferrari beat Red Bull in a straight fight this weekend and that will give them a lot of confidence at this mid-point of the season. They have worked hard to find the straight-line speed they need to compete against Red Bull, but at the weekend we also saw that they had better tyre performance on a circuit which normally suits the Red Bulls.”

Hakkinen felt that the win came down to the team that made the most efficient use of their tyres:

“Tyre performance is so critical in F1 and very much depends on the type of circuit, whether it places the emphasis on front or rear grip and the balance between them. The track in Austria tends to make rear tyre wear more critical than the front, and this favored Ferrari.”

“Although Max won the Sprint Race on Saturday in order to claim pole position, Charles already could see that his car had the performance to challenge for the win on Sunday. He even said so on the team radio. So although Max started the race strongly, Charles was able to stay fully in touch and overtake fairly easily as Max’s rear tyres struggled.”

Ferrari did not panic on strategy this time around

Hakkinen also gave a shoutout to the team's strategic unit that did not panic when Red Bull decided to pit very early in their first stint. The team stuck to its guns and pitted at the optimum time. That ultimately left Max Verstappen as a sitting duck against the Ferraris.

The Finn said:

“Ferrari’s race strategies have caused some problems this year, but not on Sunday. When they saw Max switch to a two-stop strategy, they followed, but by making their pit stops significantly later, they always retained a strong tyre advantage. This is the kind of confident strategy it will need to maintain if they are to consistently challenge Red Bull.”

Charles Leclerc now trails Max Verstappen by 38 points in the championship. Although it's still a considerable gap, things have been looking up the last two races and the Monegasque driver's competitiveness seems to be increasing.