Max Verstappen left Friday’s Formula 1 Hungarian GP with the feeling that Red Bull Racing still has work ahead. The four-time champion stated that the team has not found the ideal car balance and believes it will be necessary to evolve to compete for the top positions in Budapest.
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After finishing FP1 in second position and FP2 in fourth place, the Dutchman assessed that the performance presented was below expectations. The team’s priority now is to understand how to extract more performance from the car before the decisive activities of the weekend.
According to Verstappen, the main challenge was finding a setup that worked consistently. The driver highlighted that the lack of balance affected both performance on fast laps and the car’s behavior in race simulations.
“It was a bit difficult to find a good balance in the car today. We just need to adjust that a bit better and make sure we can get a good lap out of the car for the qualifying session and also for the long stints,” he stated.
The Red Bull driver explained that the team’s work will continue overnight, with full focus on analyzing the data collected in the two sessions held at the Hungaroring. The objective is to identify areas for improvement and arrive on Saturday in better conditions.
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“We need to analyze what we can do overnight and how to find more performance in the car. We will evaluate everything with the team and see if we can make some positive changes,” added the Dutchman.
Verstappen showed confidence that there is still potential to be found. For him, small adjustments may be enough to put Red Bull back in a more competitive position for the remainder of the Hungarian GP.
“I hope this helps us find some improvements for FP3 and for qualifying tomorrow,” concluded the four-time Formula 1 champion.
With a cautious speech, Verstappen made it clear that Friday served more to identify problems than to confirm solutions. Red Bull’s expectation is to use the hours between sessions to reduce the gap to rivals and arrive stronger for the activities that will define the rest of the weekend.
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