Verstappen lambasts Red Bull for strategic errors after a disappointing outing at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen endured a challenging day at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Frustrated by a failed strategy from his team, the Red Bull driver frequently lost his temper over the radio to the extent that his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told him to stop his “childish behaviour”.
The Dutchman voiced his frustration but refrained from commenting on his collision with Lewis Hamilton after a missed braking opportunity.
“On a day when we’re not the fastest, we should have done a better job with the strategy. I was unhappy with the first undercut, but these things happen. I was stuck for a long time, losing time battling with Lewis,” Verstappen stated.
“Then, they left me out again, thinking we could push the pace. I was held up behind backmarkers, and trying to catch them on new tyres, I lost time. And by the end, I had nothing left to extract my pace. It was a bad decision.”
“And then we switched back to mediums, but the tyres were very hot and as soon as we were behind another car, the tyres overheated and degraded. And our car wasn’t the fastest, which made overtaking more difficult. We should have considered this when making our decisions.”
The three-time world champion did not hide his concern over the performance of his rivals: “We need to work. It’s not as if we can bring new developments next weekend, so it’s a problem.”
“We’re lacking performance compared to McLaren, which isn’t good, and we need to analyse how we can improve the package. We’ll see next week, but at the moment we’re behind in both qualifying and race pace.”
When asked about his driver’s behaviour, Christian Horner understood his impatience and acknowledged that Red Bull’s strategy relied on the effectiveness of a few laps difference in tyre age, which did not work as planned.
“It’s frustrating to finish fifth. I think if we look at this race, the difference between new and worn tyres was not as significant as expected, and the undercut allowed Lewis to give Max some dirty air. The McLarens were very quick today, so we have a lot to review,” admitted Horner.
“Clearly, he sees how things are evolving. The strategy didn’t work as hoped today with the undercut and dirty air; the second sector was costly. It was a tough race, we didn’t have the pace of the cars in front, he was very vocal but he was venting his frustration.”
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Verstappen Unhappy with Red Bull’s Race Plan Verstappen Unhappy with Red Bull’s Race Plan
