A fifth place finish, and a lack of pace, saw Max Verstappen frustrated after the Hungarian Grand Prix
On a sweltering day in Budapest, the track surface at the Hungarian Grand Prix was not the only thing scorching.
So too was Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
From the opening laps — when Verstappen was instructed by his team to give second place back to Lando Norris after an investigation was noted by race officials for Verstappen leaving the track and gaining an advantage — to the post-race media sessions the Red Bull driver was beyond heated. Verstappen not only saw the McLaren one-two punch of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finish up front (chipping away at both Red Bull’s lead in the Constructors’ Championship and Verstappen’s lead over Norris in the Drivers’ race) but the closing stages of the race saw his RB20 briefly airborne after contact with Lewis Hamilton.
That incident was investigated and then dismissed by race officials as a racing incident, only adding to Verstappen’s frustration. The driver had several terse exchanges with race engineer Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase, at one point telling Lambaise “[n]o mate, don’t give me this s*** – you guys gave me this s*** strategy, okay? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”
During another exchange after the contact with Hamilton, Lambaise referred to Verstappen’s continued outbursts on the radio as “childish:”
Verstappen’s anger continued in the post-race media pen.
“Of course not happy,” said Verstappen after the race. “On a day where of course we’re already lacking pace compared to McLaren, you try and of course hope that we do the right things with the strategy, which today was not the case. The first [stop], to be undercut – it was not ideal, but maybe – you know – you get caught out, okay.
“Then again they leave me out [in the second round of stops] where I basically immediately got into traffic with backmarkers. And on a day where the car’s not the quickest, you need to try and capitalise on undercuts… You can’t rely on a little pace advantage,” continued the Red Bull driver. “Maybe last year, yeah, with the car being quite a lot faster than everyone else. But I think in the position that we’re in now, we can’t do that anymore and I think that’s why today was a tough race for us.”
Verstappen’s last point might be the most salient one he made. As we noted following the British Grand Prix, the margins for Red Bull are now razor-thin. At Silverstone, the team got every strategic call right — from when to pit to what compound to use over the closing stages — and Verstappen could only manage a P2. With last year’s RB19 the team could have had a day like today — taking Verstappen’s point about strategic mistakes as gospel — and he still would have won by around ten seconds.
This year, those mistakes combined with the relative lack of pace from the RB20 left him fighting for a podium, and battling with Hamilton in the closing laps while the McLarens pulled further ahead.
“We need to work. I mean, it’s not like suddenly next weekend [in Spa] we can have new upgrades on the car, so yeah, it is a problem,” continued Verstappen.
“We know that we’re lacking compared to McLaren and it’s of course not nice, but we have to analyse our stuff, how we can improve our overall package currently. But I don’t think that’s something very easily done, you know? We’ll see next week how it will evolve, but at the moment, I think race pace, qualifying pace – we are behind [McLaren].”
Verstappen even addressed the tense radio messages with GP in his post-race comments.
“I don’t think we need to apologize,” said the Red Bull driver. “We just need to do a better job. I don’t know why people think that you cannot be vocal on the radio. This is a sport, you know? If some people don’t like that, then stay home.”
Next week’s Belgian Grand Prix is the last race before the summer shutdown, and both the race — and the break — come at a critical time for Red Bull. Sergio Pérez managed to salvage something for the team on his side of the garage, as he climbed up to P7 despite starting at the back of the grid due to a spin in Q1 on Saturday. However, McLaren’s one-two finish saw the Woking-based team leap over Ferrari and into P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.
And they are now just 51 points behind Red Bull.
With every passing week, I harken back to Frederic Vasseur’s comments in Ferrari’s hospitality space following Norris’ win at the Miami Grand Prix. While he was speaking about Ferrari at the time, his remarks also can apply to McLaren:
“What is true is that compared to one year ago when we are able to do a good job and to put everything together, we are there, it means that we are putting [Red Bull] a little bit under pressure. They have to take to be a bit more aggressive with the strategy,” said Vasseur in Miami.
“They are not anymore in the comfort zone of last year when last year that doesn’t matter what’s happened after lap two, they were in front and it’s, I think it’s a game changer in the management of the race,” added Vasseur.
“And this, it’s an opportunity for us because that if we are doing another small step, I think that we will be really in a position to fight with them every single weekend.”
The pressure is absolutely on Verstappen and Red Bull at the moment.
Sunday in Budapest, it boiled over.
