Max Verstappen fears despite the new ܫDRS zone at the Red Bull Ring his team will still suffer a straight line speed deficit to its main rivals Ferrari and Mercedes at the Austrian Grand Prix.

While a lack of outright power and top speed is thought to have hampered Red Bull against its front-running oppon﷽ents at a number of rounds this year, a new third DRS zone in Spielberg was seen as a way the team could find a compromise to loss less time.

Despite splitting the two Ferraris after Friday practice ahead of the team’s home race, V꧙erstappen still feels a lack of top speed with hurt its chances this weekend. Verstappen ended Friday fifth quickest less than one-tenth of a second off Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

“We know that we lose quite a bit of time on the straights and even though there is a third DRS zone it is still a bit too much,” Verstappen said. “I don’t think it was a perfect day as we had a ꧋damaged floor, something broke off the inside of the floor, so my second practice session I had to run with a floor that was aﷺ little bit cut or modified, let’s say that.

“It was an old floor so we will put on a new one tomorrow but today we had to be a bit limited on that which definitely compromised the downforce of my car. I think in general it was notꦏ the best day but there is still room for improvement.”

Verstappen comes into the Austrian Grand Prix with 🍷useful moment from three pod♛iums in the past four races as he looks to continue to close the gap at the top of the Formula 1 drivers’ world championship.

The Dutch driver is currently sixth and 15 points behind fifth-pl🎃ace driver Kimi Raikkonen.