Max Verstappen says that he was aware that Red Bull may not be the most competitive in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but did not expect to struggle as much as he has after the qualification of the eighth.
The Dutchman won the Sprint race in Belgium last weekend, but did not have been on stage in one of the last three Grands Prix, and that run seems to extend to four after a non -competitive weekend to date. While the top six of the qualification were covered by only 0.126S, Verstappen was 0.356s in eighth place and a top ten start actually considered a positive result.
“Looking at the entire weekend, I think we are happy to be in Q3 because I have been more outside the top ten than in,” said Verstappen. “I didn’t have a grip all weekend, front and back, and it was the same in qualifying. It is not really a shock; I just drove to what I feel all weekend.
“There is not a single round or a single corner that I felt good. The whole weekend so far is just sliding … I have no grip. I knew it would not be the strongest weekend for us here, but I didn’t know it would be so difficult.”
Verstappen acknowledged that Red Bull struggled with McLaren in Budapest a year ago, but says that the biggest challenge as this year’s car did not respond to any changes that the team has made.
“I think we have still qualified very close to the pole [last season]Like a few hundredths, “he explained.” We were much more competitive then. This weekend, already from round one, just felt gone. We threw the car a lot and nothing really gave the direction.
“That is of course the biggest problem, because when you change a lot of the setup, it will always give you positives or negatives, and [nothing worked]. It just went around in circles and nothing gave you an idea of what to do. ‘
Verstappen does not believe that there will be a considerable amount of forward movement in Sunday’s race, given the pace shown so far, adding to it: “There are a few cars for me that I might fight a little, but of course Lewis (Hamilton) is a bit further on the road and he should not be there, right? He will get through.”
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