After Max Verstappen revealed in the paddock on Saturday that Red Bull seems to encounter new problems every Formula 1 grand prix weekend, Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix turned out far better than expected.
Verstappen secured his fourth podium finish of the season at the circuit near Budapest, although given Red Bull’s struggles he never thought that would be possible.
Asked what went through his mind on the final lap, the Dutchman laughed: “I was just like, ‘How the hell did I end up here?’ I was shocked, I’m actually still shocked.”
That is mainly because the problems from Saturday were still present. During qualifying, Verstappen explained that the car’s aerodynamic performance kept deteriorating throughout the session.
Under parc ferme conditions, a floor vane extension piece – which Laurent Mekies said had been damaged – was replaced with FIA approval, but that did not solve the issues.
“No, it was exactly the same. There’s nothing that you can change after qualifying anyway. I knew that it was going to be tough, and it was very tough, honestly,” the four-time world champion said.
“I think one of the hardest races of this year in terms of how I felt in the car, how I had to manage the balance as well from corner to corner. So yeah, to be on the podium, I think was an incredible result for us.”
Verstappen is pleasantly surprised by the result in Hungary, but says Red Bull’s problems are far from solved
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Just as in qualifying, Verstappen continued to struggle with oversteer, making the RB22 unpredictable. On Saturday, it even caused the snap that sent him spinning at the final corner at the end of Q3.
“I was still struggling with the same things as yesterday, so the car was just extremely oversteery, just dragging quite hard at one point as well,” he said.
“But I do think that moving forward at the start was making our first stint possible. We got undercut, but then I made the move on Lewis, which then I think made my second stint a little bit more straightforward.
“Then the team also put me on the softs, which initially I was like, ‘That’s going to be a long one to the end,’ but we made it work.”
Verstappen described his overtake on Hamilton into Turn 1 as the highlight of his race: “I knew that that was my only opportunity as well, because they [Ferrari] were not too bad in terms of pace. So when I saw the opportunity arise, I went for it. It was a good move.”
All of those factors combined produced a better result than Verstappen believes Red Bull deserved based on outright pace.
Verstappen saw the overtake on Hamilton as a crucial move for his second stint
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“Overall, I still don’t really understand how we are second, but I think as a team we performed strongly. I see it as a bit of an over-performance compared to what we expected, so I guess that’s a good thing considering how everything felt,” he said.
“And I saw also when I jumped out of the car again, there was damage on the car for whatever reason. So it was not made easy for us.”
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