Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is set to start third in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but the driver admits he faces an uphill fight
Immediately after crossing the start/finish line following his final run in Q3 Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen punched his steering wheel in frustration.
The Red Bull driver knew at the moment that his best effort was not enough.
McLaren locked out the front row Saturday at the Hungaroring, as Lando Norris captured his second pole position of the 2024 Formula 1 season. Norris will have teammate Oscar Piastri alongside him on the front row when the lights go out on Sunday.
And Verstappen in his rear-view mirrors.
“Yeah, I mean, I tried. The whole weekend I think we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying,” said Verstappen trackside to Alice Powell when asked about his frustration in Q3. “I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately, yeah, just not enough. A bit difficult to pinpoint why that is. Yeah, I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment. But P3 is still very close. I just hope that for tomorrow, of course, the car is good in the race, and at least that we can follow them and see what we can do there.”
Verstappen talked more about the gap to McLaren at the FIA Press Conference.
“Yeah, it was alright, but not good enough. I mean, the whole weekend, just a little bit too slow,” described Verstappen. “I mean, we tried to optimize everything, tried quite a few things, actually, with the car. And at the end, still too slow. So, yeah. That’s what it is.”
Red Bull brought several upgrades to the Hungarian Grand Prix, with F1.com noting that only Sauber and Aston Martin brought more new components to the track this weekend:
Bringing the upgrades to Budapest
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 19, 2024
Red Bull respond to a dip in form and Kick Sauber are cooking something up #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/mRADUNKNHt
Still, Verstappen noted, there is a gap to McLaren even with the upgrades.
“I mean, for sure they work, but we’re still not first, right? So we need more. It’s as simple as that. I mean, I think looking back at my qualifying, I was very happy with the laps, but yeah, balance-wise, everything is really on the edge,” added Verstappen. “I’m pushing as hard as I can. And then, of course, you have little moments here and there. I feel like I probably push harder than I did last year, but it’s just not coming anymore to have these great lap times. So I guess it just means that we are a bit slower. So we have work to do. Simple as that.”
Verstappen did not sound too optimistic when pressed on if he could fight with Norris and Piastri at the front on Sunday.
“I don’t know at the moment. But what can I do? I mean, we’ll try our very best. Try to have a good, stable balance with the car. And I hope if I find that, that I can follow them,” described Verstappen. “But I don’t know. I mean, honestly, my long runs have been OK, but nothing fantastic or special. I think it’s better to be realistic than sitting here and spreading false hope. But yeah, we’ll see tomorrow. I mean, it’s what it is.
“We are pushing as hard as we can, but clearly at the moment it’s still not how we want it to be. We’ll continue to do so. We’ll try to find more performance, but I’m also well aware that that’s not very easy to find suddenly throughout the season, with things already just planned, and just the way the car is,” continued Verstappen. “But we’ll see. I mean, there are many races. There are a lot of things that can happen in qualifying with conditions, stuff like that. So we just need to stay focused and do the best we can every single time and optimize our performances.”
