Revealed: The trick Max Verstappen used while overtaking Charles Leclerc at 2023 F1 Austrian GP

Max Verstappen overtook Charles Leclerc after his first round of pitstops to reclaim his lead over the race on Sunday at the Austrian GP.

It was an impressive display from the Red Bull driver as he dominated the entire weekend and led every single session at the team's home track. Although the Dutchman was unable to complete a Grand Slam as he did not lead every single lap of the race because of his scheduled pitstop.

After getting out of the pits, he was behind the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc but made light work of them on fresher tires. As per Sky F1, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was especially impressed with how he got past Leclerc and said:

"With Max, he's such an instinctive racer, he was feathering the throttle to get the DRS. He's watching the racing as he goes around as well. He knows what is going on and then he was pushing us about that pit stop. He wanted that set of soft tires. It was like, 'OK, no risk no fun - that's what Dietrich always said."

Red Bull team boss on Max Verstappen's late pit stop in Austria

In his quest to get the fastest lap, Max Verstappen instructed his team that he wanted a late pitstop which the team was initially hesitant to do.

Horner said of the stop, as per RacingNews365:

"There was a bit of a discussion of risk versus reward. We thought, let's cool the tires down and do it the easier way of not taking the risk of a pit stop in which 400 things can go wrong in. Then Max was making his opinion quite clear that the tires were f*cked, so then you start looking at your race, do we take the risk on a below-par set of tires or is it actually less risk to take the pit stop and put on a set of Softs?"

Horner continued:

"In the end, we said, 'Look, let's take the risk,' and he still had three seconds margin over Charles when he came out of the pit lane. Obviously, it’s a team sport, but you have effectively a chain of command to sign off on key strategic decisions."

"You’ve just got to weigh up that risk versus reward. [Lambiase] was up for it, Jonathan Wheatley was up for it, so it was like, 'Okay, don't f*ck it up.'"