Did Red Bull make a mistake? Verstappen: 'We're going to check all that'

Max Verstappen has explained more about his retirement in Australia. The Red Bull Racing driver had to stop due to brake problems.

"I think something already went wrong from the start," Verstappen told Viaplay. "In the data, we could see that the [brake] on the right side stopped cooling down. We don't know exactly yet, so something went wrong there. Hence also the moment in turn three, where I braked and it seemed like one brake was stuck and broke out like that." The Red Bull Racing driver lost the race lead soon after.

On the first lap, the problem was not yet in play, Verstappen explained. "The very first lap the brakes are still pretty cold, but you can see that one brake was working normally. You brake and then it cools down again [normally], and that right brake didn't cool down anymore."

The Dutchman had a chance to pass Sainz again and get back to P1, but the same brake problems prevented him from doing so. "Then I was behind him, I was able to overtake again, but then he [the car] broke out again at turn six. I almost went off there again. That's pretty clear there was something wrong."

Error at Red Bull?

Was there a mistake somewhere? "We don't know that at the moment. We are all going to check that where it came from," said Verstappen, who knows there is always a chance of technical malfunction. "It's still a mechanical sport, things like that can always happen. It's a bummer, though, because we did have a chance to win today."