Red Bull apologises to Verstappen after rear aero damage left him with no chance in Austrian GP qualifying crash

Red Bull has apologised to Max Verstappen after a rear aerodynamic failure on his RB22 caused an uncontrollable spin in Q3 at the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring.

Team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed that Verstappen lost rear downforce at the moment he turned into Turn 9, leaving the four-time world champion with no opportunity to save the car. “The dynamic of the incident was quite unusual. We lost aero performance on the rear of the car and it gave Max no chance to survive,” Mekies said. “As a team we take full responsibility for it and apologise to him.”

Verstappen had already sensed something was wrong before the crash, reporting a significant snap three corners earlier — an issue that had not been present during his previous qualifying runs. The incident made more sense once Red Bull identified the cause. “In T9 there was a big loss of rear end grip and the car spun out at high speed. I had an uncontrollable spin and the wheel fully locked,” Verstappen said. “We lost aero performance due to some damage on the rear of the car, which caused the issue. The car spun off and the situation was out of my hands unfortunately.”

Red Bull has declined to specify the exact source of the damage at this stage, though Mekies’ reference to a loss of rear aerodynamic performance points toward a rear wing issue. Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase appeared to reach the same early conclusion, telling Verstappen over team radio immediately after the impact: “I will check the rear wing, maybe a delay on the rear wing.”

Photographs of the incident show the rear wing had closed by the time of the crash, despite the presence of an active aerodynamics deployment zone just before Turn 9. Verstappen maintained he was already lacking rear downforce as he turned in.

Verstappen acknowledged that, even without the crash, pole position was beyond reach, estimating he would have finished third in the session behind both Mercedes drivers. He added that structural damage to the RB22 is limited and should not affect his Sunday race.

The crash was not the only difficulty Red Bull faced across the weekend. Both Verstappen and his team-mate reported a power unit issue in Turn 3 on Friday — specifically a loss of RPM at the apex — though Verstappen confirmed that problem has since been resolved. The team has also been working to find the right balance with a major upgrade package introduced this weekend.