Red Bull “underestimated” last year’s Austria GP sprint but are prepared for this season’s race

Red Bull is in complete preparation as Formula 1 heads into Austria for the tenth round of the 2023 world championship. The track is called 'Red Bull Ring' and hence is an important venue for the team to perform well at, which is expected this season because of their obvious dominance.

However, things went South for the team in the 2022 season, when, even after having one of the best cars on the grid, they lost out to Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, which eventually went on to win the race (that also remains his latest F1 victory).

This season, as their advisor, Dr. Helmut Marko, revealed, the team is not taking any chances. He spoke about the tire-heating issues that Red Bull faced during the Sprint race last season. Even though it was Max Verstappen who won the Sprint, the main race was disappointing for them.

Leclerc won the race, and Verstappen finished second. The worrying factor for the Dutchman was that he was under constant threat from Carlos Sainz, but he faced an engine failure and had to retire from the race.

There was some apparent issue with the setup; however, Dr. Marko has promised that the RB19 is easier to set up and the performance will be much better this time around.

He said:

"We underestimated that at the time. In the race our tires overheated too quickly. I think this year we have a car that is a bit easier to set up."

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Red Bull to test Daniel Ricciardo's pace in the RB19 soon

F1 Grand Prix of Canada - Previews

Daniel Ricciardo has been serving as the team's reserve driver this season after his contract with McLaren was terminated early.

While his return to the team has been rather action-less, Dr. Marko revealed recently that he will be getting a chance to drive the RB19 after the British Grand Prix.

He mentioned that the Australian will be driving the car for a Pirelli tire test for three days at Silverstone. While his input will help collect data for the team and for Pirelli, it will also give a rough idea of what pace he is at in the super-competitive car.

He stated:

“After Silverstone, we will have Ricciardo in the car for three days at a Pirelli tyre test. And there we can evaluate: Where really [in terms of pace] is Ricciardo?”

Sergio Perez's performance in the last three Grands Prix hasn't been as good as the team expects it to be. The Mexican was knocked out in Q2 during the qualifying sessions of these races and was held up behind the Ferraris during the Canadian GP.

Although many thought that Red Bull might look forward to replacing him with Ricciardo later, that might not be the case given how Perez has performed with the team in the long term. But surely, this test will provide data to the team relating to Ricciardo's pace in the car.